You Keep Running In and Out of My Life
by Heroicagal
Summary: Jessica Smith: the Girl Who Runs. She hops throughout time and space meeting the Doctors of Old and New, not sure as to how she's gotten into a parallel universe or why. She isn't sure how she of all people got the privilege and responsibility of helping to ground the Doctor. What she does know is that she had better continue to run. Her life and possibly the Doctor's depend on it
1. In Which The Running Begins

I am nothing special. I am not a movie star, or a superhero, or a pop singer. I am plain old Jessica Smith, the girl whose name even is one of the most common in the world. But somehow, in some way, I came to be one of the closest friends of the Doctor. I know his past, I know his future, and I know how much hurt he is going to face. I know everything. And when you travel with the Doctor this kind of knowledge destroys you. If you love someone you would do anything to stop them from hurting. Not _that_ kind of love either! Not for the Doctor. That comes later and with someone totally different. He's like my big brother and I've been there since the beginning for that Mad Man in his wonderful Blue Box traveling the universe. I didn't mean to end up as a Clara repeat, or even as a Companion (technically I don't know if I can even be considered a Companion, what with the way I pop in and out). Peri says it's destiny, Jamie says it's a lucky thing, Donna says it's just plain nutter. I don't know how to take it, but this is my lot in life and this is who I am now. I always bounce in and out of the Doctor's life in a moment's notice, sometimes being there for hours, days, weeks, never lucky enough for it to be years. It all depends on how long the Vortex thinks I should be there. I think the TARDIS may be in on it too, but the Old Girl is a bit tight lipped about that sort of thing.

As River says, you never know how long you get to run with the Doctor. It always feels like it's forever but it cannot always last. My story may be a bit more jumbled than even her own (imagine that!) but I know she is right. I can't run forever and I feel as though that this wild, amazing run is nearly over. Maybe that's what's urging me to record my incredible journey now. I don't know. But what I do know is that as much as the Doctor likes to call me The Girl Who Runs my time is running short and soon, very soon, he'll need somebody else to look after him.

...But let's not get too cryptic about what the Oods say. You must be confused as to how somebody as simple as me got to be so involved with the Doctor. You want to know why and how I know his future, what I mean when I say I look after him. Well hold on for a crazy ride, it makes about as much sense as anything else in these universes do.

When I say universes, I mean the plural. I come from a parallel universe like the one Rose is in except the Doctor doesn't exist there. He is the star of a TV show and I was just a fan who luckily (Mickey would have said it was the opposite) got to see the real thing. The Doctor says the reason I bounce all around the universe is because as I passed into his the Vortex noticed something not organic to it. Like an alien infection I am driven out by the equivalent of white blood cells within the Vortex after I am detected and sent around the universe as the Vortex tries to right itself and bring me home. The reason I appeared to the Doctor is because I break the Laws of Time and so does he. We are both walking paradoxes, drawn together in a seemingly endless waltz, tango, salsa, and shimmy that ends with a dip and a headache. It started out so long ago…

* * *

I was at home watching the "Sound of the Drums" with my shirt on for the past 50th Anniversary with all the Doctors on it and a blue sweat shirt on. I had my pin clasped on that was the seal of Gallifrey. I had got it as a Christmas present and I didn't even know how much grief and joy it would bring in combination. I also had on my homemade TARDIS key and a purple watch and a gold ring on my ring finger, an old family heir loom. That was all I had when I came here and I don't have much else but this electronic diary and a Bible the Doctor procure for me (let me tell you, as you travel throughout time Biblical History takes on a whole new meaning!).

I had gotten up to get some popcorn even though this episode turned my stomach. I was starving. After munching happily on the buttery kernels I turned and dropped the bag. In front of me in my kitchen tiles was a crack in the floor. And there was a golden tendril snaking it's way towards me. I tried to run but it ensnared my foot and dragged me down. Screaming at the empty house was the last thing I remembered before I was pulled completely through and into the start of this crazy tale.

* * *

I awoke with my head throbbing and a sore back. Looking up I glanced around at my surroundings, trying to orient myself. All I could see was that I was in a city and in a rather empty corner of it; except, of course for a trio and one young man bobbing to his music. I could see the woman of the trio was clearly upset with and yelling into a phone.

"Let them go Saxon, do you hear me?! Let them go!" The beautiful dark skinned woman yelled with agony into her phone. My jaw dropped and I stared from my shirt to the man in front of me in the suit and converse, his long coat adorning him. The man next to him was in a WWII jacket and had black hair and handsome features. My brain was not computing. It made no sense for this to be real. But then I remembered the agony of the burning gold light and I remembered that this episode had already been filmed. If that was all as real as I remembered then I must be…

"I'm here." The man who could only be the Doctor said softly as the man who could only be Jack comforted Martha.

"Master." The Doctor says the name simply in reply to what I know is the Master saying his name on the other end of the phone.

"You chose it. Psychiatrist's field day." He says in reply to the Master saying how much he enjoyed hearing his name said by the Doctor. I noticed his eyes flit around nervously and he looks at me without really seeing me.

"So… Prime Minister." The Doctor continues and states as both fact and a question. The Master quips a response.

"Who are those creatures? 'Cause there's no such thing as the Toclafane. It's just a made-up name like the Bogeyman." He says. I cautiously make my way towards the store window that houses the TVs near where Martha and Jack are standing. I ignore them and pretend to be interested as to what was on the screens instead of what they were doing or what the Master was saying.

"Gone. – It burnt." The Doctor says and I wince, self-consciously tracing the design on my broach.

"Dead. And the Daleks. More or less. What happened to you? – I know. – I was the only one who could end it. And I tried, I did, I tried everything." He says full of regret. I want to comfort him but that doesn't seem like the best idea right now.

"Stop it! – I've been alone ever since. But not anymore. Don't you see, all we've got is each other? – You could stop this right now, we could leave this planet. We can fight across the constellations if that's what you want. But not on Earth. – Why do you say that? – I could help you. Please let me help." I heard the pleading in his tone and know that it will do no good. The Master will not be swayed. Wait a second- this had to be a dream. There is no such thing as the Master, the Doctor, none of this was real!

The boy across the street tapped a 4 beat rhythm and bobbed in time to it.

"What have you done?" The man who I couldn't reconcile with reality asked. "Tell me how you've done this. What are those creatures?" Suddenly the Doctor's eyes got very wide and he turned and looked straight at me. Jack and Martha noticed the change in his demeanor and looked and me too, their eyes landing on my shirt. Unsure of whether I would be dealing with the Oncoming Storm or not, I turned to flee but Captain Jack grabbed onto my wrist and held me firmly in place.

"Hang on a second sweetheart. " He told me. "Where's the fire?" I started to struggle terrified as the Doctor got closer.

"She has nothing to do with this Master and I am telling you now, Jessica LeAnn Smith is under my protection as are the Jones family and Captain Jack Harkness." He looked at me and gave me a soft smile and Jack let go of my wrist, getting confirmation from the Doctor that I was alright from his demeanor. He knows my name. How does he know my name?!

"Now stop stalling and talk to me- Stop it." The Doctor looked at the televisions through the glass and there on it was his picture along with one of Martha and a rather unflattering one of Jack. What scared me the most was a fourth one that appeared. It was of a woman who looked just like me, but at least a few years my senior and with much longer hair twisted into an elegant bun and a quite interesting dress on.

"What?!" I screech, my voice coming out high pitched. The Doctor winces. He looks up and our eyes follow to a security camera.

"He can see us!" The Doctor says and takes out the camera with his sonic. It works. It actually works.

"What do we do now?" Martha asks as she looks at the smoking equipment.

"We run." The Doctor says and grabs my hand. We take off down the street with Martha and Jack in step behind us and my mind running a million times faster than my feet. This cannot be real… I look and once more see the pictures on the screen and feel the solid pounding of my feet and the warm hand of the running Doctor. This _can't not_ be real.

**A/N: Alright guys, I know that this has been done before, the whole hopping through the Doctor's time stream but I wanted to take a crack at it! This will include no OC romance with the Doctor (his Companions are a different story…) and a character that meets the Doctor at many times throughout his time stream. My goal is to have at least one encounter in every regeneration. Let's see where this takes us… Thanks for reading and see you hopefully soon. -Heroicagal**


	2. The Drums Drive Me Mad

Running with the Doctor was not something I ever had even considered remotely possible. Yet here I was, running for my life and from the Master of all people. The thing that scared me most about all this? That woman in the picture, was she possibly me? Was I going to be stuck here forever? I had no idea, but I supposed that now was not the right time to be contemplating these things. I had to focus on the matters at hand. First of all, staying alive should be a top priority. Right now I was as much of a target as the Doctor, Jack, and Martha. But why was I a target? How did the Master know me? More importantly how did the_ Doctor_ know me? Eventually we came to a stop at a warehouse. Nobody was home. Cliché but it worked. We stopped and panted, me staring in wide-eyed shock at the three of them.

"Sorry about this Jessica. Of all the times to pop up, eh? You really can't seem to stay out of trouble." He grinned wanly at me in a sort of dark humor at our current situation.

"Pop up?" I asked.

"Hold on, this is Jessica? She's much younger than she used to be." Jack interjected.

"Why does she have you on her shirt?" Martha asked looking down at my shirt. I blushed.

"Oh she's got all of me on there." The Doctor said upon closer inspection. His eyes flit to my broach. "And the Seal of Rassilon it looks like. May I see?" He asked, indicating my pin. I took it off and handed it to him and he inspected it.

"Much less damaged than it usually is, not as many scratches on it as I'm used to seeing. These are early days for you, aren't they?" He asked, handing me my unclasped broach.

"_Early_ days?! You mean there are_** later**_ days?!" I questioned, my breathing starting to pick up. I looked around at the trio and shook my head. "I want to wake up now." I say, my voice cracking. Martha cocked her head to the side.

"What?"

"I want to wake up now!" I yelled and clenched the hand clasping my pin into a fist in my agitation. I yelped at the pain as it pricked me on my palm. Opening my hand I saw it was bleeding. My face turned a deathly pale. I hadn't woken up and the three of them were now eying me in concern.

"You haven't met me yet, have you Jessica?" The Doctor asked softly, his eyes looking me up and down. I shook my head and chuckled mirthlessly.

"But obviously you know me. Tell me, Doctor, am I insane? Have I lost it? How can you be real?!" I asked, my voice rising at the end of that statement. He looked at me with a small amount of hurt in his eyes.

"Jessica Leann Smith: the Girl Who Runs. I am sorry, so _so_ sorry that we had to meet like this." He gently took my hand and wiped the blood off of it. "Let's do this the proper way. 'Hello, I'm the Doctor'". He said and smiled another smile, this one warm and comforting. I looked at his extended hand and slowly took it.  
"Hello Doctor. I'm Jessica Smith." I said slowly, my mind starting to accept the reality of the situation. He gave me a small pat on the shoulder.

"I know."

After taking a few minutes to calm down I explained what had happened to me to the Doctor as Martha and Jack listened in.

"So you know what's going to happen? How this is going to end?" Martha asked, hope radiating in her tone. Before I could answer the Doctor stopped her.

"Even if she does, she can't tell us."

"What? Why?!" Martha demanded, fury starting to seep into her eyes.

"It could create a massive paradox and destroy all of time and space. We don't know if this is a fixed point in the Doctor's life or not and if it is, we can't do anything to change it without risking the collapse of all reality." Jack said with a slight sigh. Martha frowned in frustration. I winced as I remembered what had happened with Rose during "Father's Day".

"Anyway, might I say it is great to be ahead of you for once in knowing what's going on?" The Doctor said with a small teasing glint in his eyes. I smiled back at him albeit with less giddiness.

"This has happened before then? Me showing up out of the blue?" Martha was about to respond when the Doctor stopped her by holding up a hand.

"Can't say, even if the answer seems obvious. The Laws of Time forbid me from telling you anything about your own future." I gave a small growl of frustration, now understanding Martha's irritation.

"Jack already said that I looked younger than last time so I'm guessing that the answer is a yes." There was no response from anyone, the silence confirming my thoughts.

"I'm starving. I'm going to go see if I can get some food now that it's dark out." Martha said after a moment of palpable silence.

"I'll go with you." I offered, wanting the chance to clear my head. Martha shook her head.

"I think traveling in a group will draw too much attention, besides, you and the Doctor have a lot to catch up on." Martha left before I could even protest that we couldn't catch up on anything, we were both stuck in a silence demanded by the Laws of Time. The Doctor seemed to share my thoughts as he went back to fiddling with the vortex manipulator of Jack's and the computer completely ignoring my pleading glance. I slumped in defeat to the ground and stared blankly ahead. _It could be worse_, I rationalized. _I could've dropped in on the Master_. I shivered at the thought.

"So, have you met _me_ yet?" Jack asked, trying to take me away from my dark musings. I grinned warily and shook my head.

"Captain Jack Harkness." Jack said and I laughed as he was able to turn something as innocuous as his name into a flirt.

"Jack, stop it." The Doctor warned, looking up from his work.

"I'm just saying hello!" Jack responded back with his usual annoyance. I laughed.

"I'm Jessica Smith. As flattering as the flirting is, I think I may be a bit young for you at this point in my timeline." I responded back much to Jack's chagrin and the Doctor's amusement.

"Don't take it personally Jack; she's got a thing for Scots." He teased and went back to his fiddling. My cheeks burned red as Jack queried with his eyebrows raised.

"It's nothing." I turned away his inquisition and went back to the Doctor. "Thanks for that, by the way." I said annoyed. He just smirked, a knowing grin on his face.

There was the sound of heels as Martha came back carrying an assortment of food with her. My stomach growled at the sight, having not eaten since popcorn. The Doctor raised an eyebrow at me and I blushed even more.

"How was it?" Jack asked, wondering about how much attention we would draw in this part of town.

"I don't think anyone saw me." Martha answered.

"Anything new?" She asked as she gave Jack some chips. He munched gratefully on them.

"Met Jessica for the first time officially for her and the Doctor was able to this to tune into government wavelengths. We can monitor what Saxon is doing from now on. "He said, tapping the vortex manipulator.

"Yeah, I meant about my family." Martha snappishly responded, turning to the Doctor and me and delivering some chips to us as well.

"Still says the Jones family taken in for questioning." The Doctor reported as I took a bite of the greasy golden goodness. They were doing wonders for my nerves. "Tell you what, though, no mention of Leo." He said with a slight smile, hoping to cheer his companion up.

Martha returned his smile. "Not as daft as he looks." She paused and realized how ridiculous this all was. "I'm talking about my brother, on the run, how did this happen?" She asked more of herself than of anyone else.

"I am completely with you on that sentiment." I said flatly. She gave me a small glance before looking to Jack and the Doctor.

"Nice chips." Jack commented, trying to turn the conversation from our wonderings at the insanity that was now our lives. He was right of course. They were really very tasty…

"Actually, not that bad." The Doctor said as he chewed a few thoughtfully. I nodded in agreement.

"Pretty good." I said. The lull in the conversation lasted only a few more seconds as Jack gained the courage to ask what was on both his and Martha's minds.

"So, Doctor, who is he?" he asked, "How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?" I snorted at that, remembering the things I'd seen about the High Council. They all seemed to be psychopathic. The Doctor gave me a warning look as he seemed to have read my mind. I folded my arms and gave him a challenging glare, daring him to deny it after all hid fellow Time Lords had put him through, not to mention the fact that the Time Lords had bred Rassilon and Omega, both insane but brilliant and ruthless.

"And what is he to you?" Martha wanted to know, "Like a colleague, or…" An old school buddy. They both went together to the academy just like with the Rani. I tried hard not to laugh as I remembered the Master with his cliché beard of evilness. While this was no laughing matter, it helped me to calm a bit more to make light of the situation and the 70's Master, while brilliantly acted and still as evil and ruthless, somehow had a slight campiness to him that allowed the audience to be able to enjoy his character without cringing at his insanity as they do with this new Master.

"A friend at first." The Doctor said a bit sadly. I put my hand on his shoulder to comfort him. He gave me a quick nod of thanks to my concern but his eyes also brushed it off. I dropped my hand and fiddled with the Seal of Rassilon pinned to my shirt.

"I thought you were going to say he was your secret brother or something." Martha joked. The Doctor and Jack gave her a bewildered look and this time I laughed heartily.

"You've been watching too much TV." The Doctor said and Jack nodded his agreement. Martha just grinned sheepishly and Jack moved things along.

"But all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect." Jack said with a frown and perplexed look in his eyes.

"Well, perfect to look at, maybe." The Doctor said, "And it was, it was beautiful." He paused to lean back in the chair he was sitting in, reminiscing. "They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. And on the continent of the Wild Endeavour, in the mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords. The oldest and most mighty race in the universe, looking down on the galaxies below, sworn never to interfere. Only to watch." I frowned. _So much for that policy, _I thought, remembering the Second Doctor's term of servitude to the Celestial Intervention Agency and the Third Doctor's exile on Earth only ended when he had done enough of their bidding. They still interrupted his life afterwards, the Fourth Doctor being told that he could only enjoy the freedom they would so graciously grant him if he continued to allow them to, from time to time, snatch him out of his time stream to do their dirty work. It made me angry and the Doctor took note of the anger in my eyes. I looked at him and he nodded to me letting me know silently that he knew what I was thinking and that it was alright. He was fine.

"Children of Gallifrey, taken from their families at the age of eight to enter the Academy." The Doctor went on, "And some say that's where it all began. When he was a child. That's when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the Untempered Schism, it's a gap in the fabric of reality through which can be seen the whole of the Vortex. You stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of time and space. Just a child. Some would be inspired. Some would run away. And some would go mad." He shook himself slightly back to reality. "I don't know." I looked down. I did, it was the vortex that did this to him.

"What about you?" Martha wondered. I knew this one.

"Oh, the ones that ran away." The Doctor said without a trace of guilt or hesitation. I smiled.

"He's been running ever since." I said. The Doctor noticed my wistful smile and draped his arm around my shoulder, drawing me close.

"Never had the time to stop. So much to see and an awful lot of running to do." He said as he jostled me playfully and I hummed the song from Chameleon Circuit. Martha and Jack gave me an odd look but I just shook my head.

"I know a song called that."

"What?" The Doctor asked.

"You didn't know? There's a whole band dedicated to you where I come from." The Doctor wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Seriously?" Martha asked a bit stunned.

There was a beep from Jack's vortex manipulator.

"Encrypted channel with files attached. Don't recognize it." He informed us.

"Patch it through to the laptop." The Doctor instructed.

"Uh, since we're telling stories," Jack said with a clear nervous tone, "There's something I haven't told you." Jack plugged in the vortex manipulator and held his breath as the Torchwood logo lit up on the screen. We both cringed at the glare the Doctor gave him.

"You work for Torchwood?" He asked and then he turned to me. "You knew about this." He didn't even ask it as a question. It was a statement.

"Hey, I just got here, the Master is out to kill me, and oh yeah, I'll probably never be able to get home again! Sorry I didn't have it first thing on my mind to report to you what the good guys were doing as though it were an issue!" He frowned but turned to Jack who started to give a defense.

"Doctor, I swear to you, it's different, it's change." Jack said, "There's only half a dozen of us now." Yup, and a pretty great half a dozen.

"Everything Torchwood did and you're part of it?" The Doctor demanded an explanation.

"The old regime was destroyed at Canary Wharf." Jack reported "I rebuilt it, I changed it, and when I did that, I did it for you. In your honor."

The Doctor didn't look convinced but the video came up anyhow.

"_If I haven't returned to my desk by 2200, this file will be emailed to Torchwood. Which means if you're watching this, then I'm…" _The woman paused, unable to fathom this idea. "_Anyway, the Saxon files are attached, but take a look at the Archangel document. That's when it all started, when Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the Archangel Network."_

The screen showed a series of images, the earth surrounded by satellites in orbit around it.

"What's the Archangel Network?" The Doctor asked.

"I've got Archangel," Martha said retrieving her phone, "Everyone's got it." I pulled out my own phone from my pocket and was relieved to see my phone wasn't on the network.

"It's a mobile phone network." Jack continued, "Because look, it's gone worldwide. They've got 15 satellites in orbit. Even the other networks, they're all carried by Archangel."

Eyes widening in realization the Doctor scanned Martha's phone with his screwdriver.

"It's in the phones! Oh, I said he was a hypnotist. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on." He hit the phone against the table and it suddenly put forth the four beat rhythms, "There it is! That four beat rhythm. It's everywhere. Ticking away in the subconscious."

"What is it, mind control?" Martha questioned.

"The Master always was hypnotic." I said and shrugged. It was sorta like mind control in my own opinion…

"No, no, no, no. Subtler than that." The Doctor responded, "Any stronger and people would question it. But contained in that rhythm, in layers of code, 'Vote Saxon. Believe in me.' Whispering to the world. Oh yes!" The Doctor figured it out. "That's how he hid himself from me! 'Cause I should've sensed there was another Time Lord on Earth. I should've known way back, but the signal cancelled him out."

"Anyway you can stop it?" Jack wanted to no.

"Not from down here." The Doctor admitted, "But now we know how he's doing it."

"And we can fight back!" Martha realized.

"Oh, yes!"

The Doctor got down to business, stripping apart the laptop and Martha's phone. He held out his hand and each of his companions gave him their TARDIS keys. He looked expectantly at me.

"I don't have one." He looked to the homemade key around my neck. "Wait, this seriously works?" I asked. He nodded, pleased by my excitement. I quickly gave it to him. He got to work on each of our keys, including his own.

"Four TARDIS keys." The Doctor said, pushing them back towards us, "Four pieces of the TARDIS, all with low-level perception properties because the TARIDS is designed to blend in." he paused for a second, as Martha and Jack gave him a look while I knew what was going on and so I beckoned him to continue with a gesture, "Well sort of, but now, the Archangel Network's got a second low-level signal. Weld the key to the network and Jessica" he said as he took a step back, holding his key, "Look at me, you can see me, yes?" I nodded my affirmation.

"What about now?" The Doctor placed the key around his neck and I couldn't keep my focus on him. "No, I'm here, look at me." The Doctor tried to get my attention and it worked for a second but then my attention shifted elsewhere.

"It's like I know that you're there, but I don't want to know." I report for the benefit of Jack and Martha.

"And back again." The Doctor took off his key. "See? It just shifts your perception a tiny little bit. Doesn't make us invisible. Just unnoticed." He passed us back our keys and stopped. "Oh! I know what it's like! It's like… It's like when you fancy someone, and they don't even know you exist." Martha looked put out and the Doctor took off. Looking between Martha and the Doctor, I went to catch up with him after giving her an understanding look. I knew how she felt.

I caught up with the Doctor. "You do know that you are Mr. Thick sometimes right?" I asked, and he gave me a dumbfounded look.

"What?" But Martha and Jack had caught up. He took note of it and gave me a look that said this conversation wasn't over. I rolled my eyes.

"Don't run. Don't shout; just keep your voice down." The Doctor cautioned, "Draw attention to yourself and the spell is broken. Just keep to the shadows."

"Like ghosts." Jack said.

"Yeah. That's what we are." The Doctor whispered, "Ghosts."

We put on the keys and headed out, nobody seeing us as we moved like specters.

We finally managed to get to the air base where the president of the US in this universe was meeting the Master. We stuck to the shadows and my heart leapt into overdrive as I noticed the Master sitting there. I stumbled quickly at his sight and the Doctor caught me, concern evident in his face. I gave him a shaky smile of reassurance and he helped set me right. As the president left in pulled the Jones family under arrest and Martha had a clear fury in her eyes. It made me doubt the Master's sanity even more that he even considered messing with her family.

"Hi, guys!" The Master crowed in the glee. Despite the handcuffs, both Mr. and Mrs. Jones struggled to get at Saxon, but were quickly stopped by the officers, "All will be revealed!"

Martha started to go for them.

"Don't move." The Doctor said.

"But—"

"Don't." He repeated, this time with more force. She listened to him with obvious regret in her eyes.

"I'm gonna kill him." She said as she watched her family being carted away. That was the effect he had on most people though.

"Say I use this perception filter to walk up behind him and break his neck?" Jack offered. I shook my head.

"I'd do no good. He'd just regenerate. If we could find a way to stop both his hearts though…" The Doctor looked horrified at the pair of us. I shrugged slightly. I knew this was upsetting him but sometimes evil is evil. In this case I think we should take River's lead.

"Now that sounds like Torchwood." The Doctor remarked to Jack. "And you're infecting Jessica." He added.

Jack shrugged, "Still a good plan." He gestured towards me.

"He's a Time Lord. Which makes him my responsibility." He said to us, "I'm not here to kill him. I'm here to save him."

"Aircraft carrier _Valiant,_ that's a UNIT ship, at 58.2 North, 10.02 East." Jack said after messing with his vortex manipulator some more.

"How do we get on board?" Martha asked.

"Does that thing work as a teleport?" The Doctor queried of Jack.

"Since you revamped it, yeah." Jack reported as he pressed some more buttons, "Coordinates set."

The Doctor made sure that all four of us had our hands on the manipulator before he let it have a go and then we teleported. I went farther than the rest.

The next thing I knew I was in a room filled with people. My perception filter was still active so no one saw me.

"Jessica!" The Doctor whispered urgently as he saw me.

"Doctor what-" I felt as though my stomach had turned inside out. He led me to Martha and Jack.

"You just experienced your first temporal jump. I have a plan. Stay here."

"And I ask you now," President Winter's continued, "I ask of the human race, to join with me in welcoming our friends. I give you the Toclafane." He spread out his arm as four Toclafane appeared to the world around him. One by one they came. The Doctor began to creep around the edge of the room, trying to get to the Master, "My name is Arthur Coleman Winters, President Elect of the United States of America, and Designated Representative of the United Nations. I welcome you to planet Earth and its associated moon."

"You're not the Master." A child-like male voice came from a Toclafane.

"We like the Mr. Master." A female said creepily.

"We don't like you." A third male retorted.

I wanted to do something, say something, but I knew this is what had to happen.

"I can be master, if you so wish." Winters said, "I will accept mastery over you if that is God's will."

"Man is stupid." Male One said.

"Master is our friend." Male Two continued.

"Where's my Master, pretty please?" The girl sphere asked.

"Oh, all right then. It's me!" the Master yelled happily, jumping up and out of his chair. "Ta-da!" He laughed, "Sorry. Sorry, I have this effect, people just get obsessed. Is it the smile, is it the aftershave, is it the capacity to laugh at myself? I don't know! It's crazy!"

"Like he is." I grumbled. Jack shushed me.

"Saxon, what are you talking about?" President Winters asked, thoroughly annoyed.

The Master suddenly grew serious. "I'm taking control, Uncle Sam. Starting with you." he turned around and ordered of the Toclafane, "Kill him." President Winters was annihilated. People screamed and panicked trying to leave the room. I felt bile rise in the back of my throat and had to swallow down the sick.

"Guards!" The Master called.

"Nobody move!" They shouted, training their weapons. "Nobody move!"

The Master ran to where he was in view of the cameras. "Now then!" he demanded attention, "Peoples of the Earth, please attend carefully." The Doctor lunged at him, seeing his chance. The spell of his perception filter was broken and on the orders of the Master he was halted by his guards.

"We meet at last, Doctor." The Master gave a Joker like grin, "Oh! I love saying that!"

"Stop this!" The Doctor yelled, "Stop it now!"

"As if a perception filter is gonna work on me." The Master leered at the Doctor and turned to look straight at us, our keys having been revealed as being utterly useless. "Oh look, it's the girlie, the Freak, and the Running Girl. Although I'm not sure which one's which." Jack had decided he had had enough of this madman. He took the Doctor's lead and bolted, only to be shot down by the Master with a small thin metal tube and a yellow beam that it emitted. And then he died again. Martha and I rushed to him to make sure he resuscitated. "Laser screwdriver. Who'd have sonic? And the good thing is, he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again." He looked us over. "My my Jessica, you seem to have gained a few pounds but lost some years. Got any work done?" He winked at me, obviously relishing the fact that I had no idea how and when we had met and he could see my confusion.

"Master, just calm down." The Doctor tried, "Just look at what you're doing, just stop. If you could see yourself…"

The Master gave a melodramatic sigh before turning to address the camera once again." Do excuse me, little bit of personal business. Back in a minute." He walked off and out of view and he turned to the guards, "Let him go." The guards released the Doctor and pushed him hard to the floor. I glared venom at the Master at the way his people were treating the Doctor and he just smiled at my feeble attempts at intimidation.

"It's that sound, that sound in your head." He said hurriedly went on, "What if I can help?"

"Oh! How to shut him up?" The Master said with a sarcastic musing, "I know! Memory lane!" He sat down right in front of the Doctor, "Professor Lazarus, remember him? And his genetic manipulation device?" Martha and the Doctor shot him a look of confusion. "What, did you think little Tish got that job merely by coincidence? I've been laying traps for you all this time. And if I can concentrate all that Lazarus technology into one little screwdriver…But, ooh, if only I had the Doctor's biological code. Oh! Wait a minute! I do!" the Master suddenly leaped up, running over to a shiny metal case, "I've got his hand!" he said opening the case to show us the jar with the Doctor's hand in it that Jack had called his 'Doctor Locator' ,"And if Lazarus made himself younger, what if I reverse it? Another hundred years?" And then the Master pointed his own screwdriver at the Doctor and began the horrible process of altering his genetic makeup. Images poured into my head as the Doctor screamed in pain; the time he was turned into an Androgum, the time he had been made Cyber Controller, the Ganger who had struggled through his regenerations into the eleventh. All were incredibly painful and all were so wrong to have forced upon you. I went forward to try to shield him but Jack grabbed my wrist. Jack also grabbed Martha and gave her his vortex manipulator.

"Teleport." He told her.

"I can't." She said stubbornly, eyeing the Doctor. "I can't just leave him."

"We can't stop him. Get Jessica and yourself out of here and away from this maniac. We can't let what Jessica knows fall into his hands. Get out." Jack said and I gave him a glare that said I knew exactly where I was going to go and it wouldn't be flying to the hills and abandoning the Doctor. We had only just met but the Doctor treated me kindly and from the look of things he was all I would have in the terms of people to rely upon in the foreseeable future. I couldn't just leave him here to suffer, even though I knew I was being irrational. I knew everything would be alright. But did I really? Time is relative. Things could turn out much differently here and with a paradox machine at his disposal the Master could really kill the Doctor without bringing total collapse of reality immediately.

The man pretending to be Saxon stopped finally and I rushed over from Jack to the Doctor, Martha following quickly behind. He was even older than his first self now, infinitely more feeble and sore. We managed to sit him up slightly together. "Doctor?" I asked softly. Martha went about checking his hearts beats.

"Ah, she's a would-be doctor." The Master said in regard to Martha's examination, "But tonight, Martha Jones, we've flown them in, all the way from prison." The doors opened and the Jones family was forced in with guns buried into their necks. Martha tensed besides me, petrified in place at the sight. I couldn't even imagine how she was feeling; I had never had to see such a horrific sight with my own family.

"Mum." She breathed.

"I'm sorry." Mrs. Jones cried.

"The Toclafane." The Doctor demanded at the Master as he labored to breathe, "What are they?" The Master bent down towards the Doctor, gesturing at him that he couldn't hear, "Who are they?" The Doctor repeated.

"Doctor, if I told you the truth," he touched the Doctor's chest where his hearts were, "Your hearts would break." He gave me a grin.

"I suppose you having to see him like this has brought him halfway there already." I wanted to pounce at him but kept my cool.

"Is it time?" the female Toclafane queried.

"Is it ready?"

"Is the machine singing?"

The Master stood up and looked at his watch, "Two minutes past." He bounded up the steps, meeting up with his sadistic blonde wife and he turned to face the camera, "So, Earthlings! Basically, um… End of the world." He held up his own screwdriver into the air as he yelled triumphantly, "Here. Come. The drums!" A song started to blare in the background and the faux-Saxon grinned as the sky poured down millions of Toclafane.

"How many do you think there are?" The Master asked his blonde.

"I don't know." She responded.

"Six billion!" he answered as he switched the speaker to connect to the outside, "Down you go, kids!" he called to the Toclafane and they continued to rain down, "Shall we decimate them?" he asked of his wife, "That sounds good. Nice word, decimate. Remove one tenth of the population." He ordered the spheres.

The Doctor gave me a look and then started to whisper to Martha whose eyes widened. Pleas were pouring into the _Valiant _from the demolished planet below.

"_Valiant, this is Geneva! We're getting slaughtered down here!"_

"_Help us! Please, help us! They're everywhere!"_

"_This is London, Valiant! This is London calling, what do we do? They're killing us, the Toclafane are killing us!"_

Martha had tears streaming down her face and I tried to keep the voices from overwhelming me. She grabbed ahold of me and pointed to the manipulator and I nodded in understanding. We both gave the room one last look, her connecting with her family, me gazing broken heartedly at the elderly Doctor who gave me a look of determination and she activated the teleport sending her down to London and me somewhere far away through the vortex to my next meeting with the Doctor.


	3. Van Statten the Dalek

_Heavy inspiration from __The Time Child __in this chapter, so not solely my own original idea. _

The headache I got this time when going through the Vortex was enough to scare me into thinking that maybe I could hear the drums like the Master. I certainly felt like there was a thumping going on against my skull. I landed smack in the middle of someone's office and face to face with a bald man with a mustache. My heart dropped into my stomach as I realized that I knew very much who that man was and that it didn't bode well for me that I ran into him.

"What are you doing here?" Henry Van Statten growled as my vision span and I tried to understand my surroundings.

"What?"

"How did you get in here? What type of creature are you?" He asked as he pressed a button on his desk. Soon I was surrounded on many sides by the men he kept in his employ, all with heavy firearms pointed at various organs and my head. If I made one wrong move, I was Swiss cheese.

"Now hold on a second, I'm not any sort of 'creature'." I tried to placate him.

"How else could you get in here?" Van Statten demanded.

"I can't really explain it—"I started to say when he motioned to his guards and one wacked me cross the skull, sending me spiraling into the darkness.

* * *

The next moment I awoke I came face to face with a Dalek. One look at the thing and I _screamed._ Terror, frustration, despair, all the things I had been feeling during my last encounter with the Master came tumbling out in a rush from my lips and it sounded like the dead were rising as the panic fully set in.

I was alone. Completely alone and face to face with one of the most evil things that ever existed. Its eye stock started to glow blue and I noticed that it turned to look straight at me. It scanned me up and down but stopped when its eye came upon my chest. I might as well have been wearing a target.

"The Doc-tor!" It said in that odd mechanical voice that caused my heart to beat rapidly. "You know the Doc-tor!" It yelled louder seeing the collection of eleven of his faces on my shirt. "You are an enemy! You will be exterminated! Exterminate! Exterminate_! Exterminate_!" Its franticness grew with each word that should have led to my death, but when it cultivated and tried its weapons… Nothing. It was a Dalek with no power and so I was safe. For now. Scrambling over to the door I tried to open it when it was unlocked and I fell flat on my face from trying to lean into it and break it down. Henry's men collected me as the man itself looked thoughtfully at me.

"Obviously you know my Metaltron." He said, looking at the Dalek with what can only be described as a lust behind his curiosity.

"Yes, I do and I can tell you that you have to get rid of that thing. It's a death machine!" I tried to warn him. He ignored my frantic pleas and instead turned his attention to the lead soldier for hire.

"Put her in one of the empty specimen rooms. I want to study her." My eyes grew wide and I pulled hard against the men dragging me.

"Please listen to me! If you don't do something about that-that _thing_, you are going to die!" I begged. They ignored me and we came to a cell that was slightly familiar. I had only seen "Dalek" once or twice but I knew what was coming next and braced myself for it. The men trussed me up on one of the standing racks and Van Statten stood to the side, looking on in approval. When I was sufficiently restrained he looked to one of the techs who stepped up to an instrument right in front of where I was splayed out.

"You know my Metaltron and you appeared here in a burst of bright golden light. I want to know why." He said. I shook my head.

"I can't explain it because I don't know why I'm here!" I tried desperately. Henry tutted.

"Very well. If you won't give me a straight answer, let's see what we can get out of you the hard way." The technician nodded and operated the machine. A light emitted from it and I gasped in pain as it ran over my body, searing hot and knife-like in pricking me. The results Van Statten got made him frown.

"But you're human…"He said, confused.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" I said and his gaze turned cold.

"Then you're a thief, here to steal my artifacts. Think you're sly enough do you? Think you can waltz right in? Well I won't allow it. You still have some secrets to tell me and since you were so desperate to see my little treasure trove, consider yourself part of it."

"Mr. Van Statten, please will you just listen to me—" I started to say.

"I don't listen to thieves." He said and strode away. One of the soldiers came forward and try as I might to dodge him, he shoved a rag in my mouth. I tried to spit it out but he wound it round my head tightly and tied it hard, sealing off my only way of trying to make them understand and saving myself. The door shut and I was left alone, again in the darkness, hoping that the next time I met the Doctor would be very soon.

* * *

The next few days fell into a routine. I was questioned by Van Statten who was paranoid into thinking that I was part of some sort of operation to undermine him and take his precious collection. I was given food once a day and water, but all other times he made sure I was mute unless he was present. After the latest interrogation session and after the gag had once again been put back into place in order to keep me from conversing with anyone but him Van Statten was called out of the room on account of the fact that there were more "intruders" as his men had said. He strutted out of the room with a glance my way, seeming to think he had found my fellow conspirators. Snorting softly to myself at the idiocy of the guy who was holding me prisoner, I set to work twisting my restraints. Over the past few days I had been able to slightly loosen them and if I could just get them to move a little more… After a few minutes of wriggling the guard who was posted outside came in to double check on me like they always did, once every half hour to make sure I didn't "teleport" as Van Statten called it. I was forced to stop as he came in and sat down, raising his eyebrow at my glare. Ignoring the anger in my eyes he set into eating his lunch and I just closed my eyes in frustration and for some reason they stayed closed and I nodded off.

I was awoken when the door was opened and in Nine was dragged. It was dark off in my corner of the room so he didn't see me right away. He was stripped of his shirt and thrust against a rack like I was and restrained there. It wasn't until the beam that felt like it fried your insides ran over his body that I made a noise of protest. After a soft moan he turned my way and his eyes ignited with fury as he took in my condition.

"Jessica?!" He asked quietly, dangerously. Van Statten was appraising the Doctor's readings with much more delight than he had mine.

"Two hearts!" Henry gloated. "Binary vascular system! Oh, I am so going to patent this."

"So that's your secret. You don't just collect this stuff, you scavenge it." The Doctor turned his angry glare towards Van Statten who didn't look the slightest perturbed. I was though. He had the echo of the look he got when he was the Oncoming Storm, fury and righteous indignation and what was worse and slightly below the upper layer: revenge.

"This technology has been falling to earth for centuries." Van Statten told the Doctor. "All it took was the right mind to use it properly. Oh the advances I've made from alien junk, you have no idea, Doctor. Broadband? Roswell. Just last year my scientists cultivated bacteria from the Russian Crater, and do you know what they found? The cure for the common cold. Kept it strictly within the laboratory of course, no need to get people excited. Why sell one cure when I can sell a thousand palliatives?"

Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten?" The queried of the man with his anger seeping through. "A Dalek is honest. It does what it was born to do for the survival of its species—that creature in your dungeon is better than you." He spat at Henry and I knew that he really despised this man. What I didn't understand was why there seemed to be even more hostility there than what was in the episode.

"In that case, I shall be true to myself and continue." The other man said and went back to the scanner. I gave a muffled angry retort to the man as he reached for the scanner, my own rage surfacing as he was hurting the Doctor.

"That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!" The Doctor tried to get Van Statten to understand.

"Nothing can escape the Cage." He waved it away and with nonchalance continued to torment the Time Lord who gave a groan and writhed about trying to ignore the beam he was being hit with. I started to thrash around this time, hoping I could come loose and help him.

"But it's woken up! It knows I'm here! It's gonna get out! Van Statten, I swear no one on this base is safe! No one on this planet!" Van Statten ignored him and ran the scanner another time to which he arched his back and cried out in pain, his head thrown back as he did. I clenched my eyes shut, unwilling to watch as he was hurt.

"Condition red! Repeat, condition red! This is not a drill!" A voice came over an intercom as an alarm started to wail. Van Statten did pay attention to his own systems now, and looked to the Doctor who was flushed from the pain.

"Release us if you want to live. I won't help you until you let Jessica go too." He told Henry who gave the order and had us both released. The Doctor made his way over to me as I stumbled on wobbly legs from being locked up for so long. He quickly engulfed me in a hug and I returned it, feeling safe in his embrace.  
"You okay then?" He asked as he looked me over, inspecting every inch of me like a worried older brother. I gave him a small and shaky grin and nodded.

"You mean despite the Dalek and being a lab rat for the past few days? Yeah." The Doctor looked like he wanted to say something else but a man cleared his throat and looking up he saw his shirt and jacket being held out to him for retrieval. The Doctor shrugged on his shirt and jacket and turned to Van Statten.

"Let me be clear, I'm not helping you because you deserve it. I'm doing this because most of the rest of your people and this planet do. If you ever touch Jessica again, let me tell you that the Dalek will be the least of your concerns." He said. Grabbing me by the hand he marched out of the control room with Henry Van Statten, the man with the grand collection and even bigger ego, terrified in his wake.


	4. The Terror of the Last Dalek

I huddled close to the Doctor as we were led to Van Statten's office, ignoring the looks I was getting from both the personnel and Van Statten himself. The Doctor was protectively gripping my arm and drew me closer when he noticed my unease. Looking up at him I gave him a reassuring smile which he gave back with a slight twitch of his lips. I could tell that he was as uneasy as I was though, his whole body was rigid and he walked straight as a board.

Inside Van Statten's office we brought up the connection to the Cage where the Dalek was being held. The Doctor took charge, ignoring all else in the room but the problem at hand.

"You've got to keep it in that cell." He told the guard through the screen. Rose noticed that the Doctor was giving instructions and came over to the screen.

"Doctor, it's all my fault." She confessed, guilt evident in her eyes.

"You didn't know Rose. You were trying to help." I tried to reassure her. She looked at me, slightly surprised that I knew her name and instantly went on high alert.

"Who's that then?" She asked, not addressing me but the Doctor standing beside me.

"I haven't mentioned her? Rose, this is Jessica LeAnn Smith. Jessica, Rose." The Doctor said, not looking at me as I gave him a questioning glance. I wasn't really hurt, but slightly confused. Jack had known me, and so had Martha and since the Doctor himself had instantly known who I was I just assumed that Rose was in on the details.

" I've sealed the compartment. It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations." The guard on the screen brought us back on track from our little introduction tangent. The Doctor rolled his eyes at the cockiness of the guard.

"A Dalek's a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat." He said. And that is what the Dalek proceeded to do.

"Open fire!" The man in charge of Van Statten's group of rented soldiers ordered. I cringed, knowing it wouldn't do any good.

"Don't shoot it! I want it unharmed!" Van Statten yelled at them. It took all my restraint not to smack him hard upside the head.

"Rose get out of there!" The Doctor told Rose urgently.

"And _hurry_ Rose, or you may get caught up in the crossfire!" I added. She nodded and turned to go with De Maggio who was assigned to get her and Adam away from there. I knew there was something about that guard that was important, but I couldn't remember. All I remembered from this episode was the bloodshed.

"Abandoning the Cage, sir." Bywater, the one in charge of the guards, informed Van Statten.

The Dalek meanwhile was busy.

"We're losing power. It's draining the base... It's draining entire power supplies for the whole of Utah!" Goddard, Van Statten's assistant told the Doctor. I shook my head.

"It's downloading the internet. It knows everything that the human race knows now." I said to the Doctor who nodded grimly. My stomach lurched in fear because I knew what was coming next.

"Sir, the entire West Coast just went down!" Goddard said again. We looked on the screen and saw what could only be described as the psychotic breakdown of a Dalek.

"The Daleks survive in me!" It almost shrieked and flailed its weapons about, destroying the exterior of the Cage and the cameras that we were using to see into the room with the random spurts of energy discharged from its weapon.

"The cameras in the vault have gone down." Goddard said unnecessarily.

"We've only got emergency power. It's eaten everything else. You've got to kill it now!" The Doctor demanded urgently. I nodded emphatically.

"All guards converge to the Metaltron cage immediately." Goddard ordered.

"No, don't! They'll get massacred!" I warned the woman desperately. She ignored me. The guards swarmed the room and over the intercom we could hear the firing and ricochet of bullets.

"Tell them to stop shooting at it!" Van Statten told her.

"But it's killing them!" Goddard tried to reason. My blood was boiling at this point.

"They're dispensable. That Dalek is unique. I don't want a scratch on its bodywork, do you hear me? Do you hear me?" Van Statten called to them. The firing did stop, but not because Henry had ordered it. They were dead. So many people all slaughtered for this guy's insatiable greed.

"Do you see what you've done you stupid, greedy, insignificant little man?!" I yelled at him. "Those were real people with friends and lives and families! They're gone forever now all because you are an idiot who doesn't know when to call it quits and too lustful to place the appropriate value on human lives! They are dead and it is YOUR FAULT!" I hissed and trembled, tears coming out of my eyes. Of course, it wasn't only his fault either. What good was knowledge of the future if I couldn't stop these things. Those people were gone. Just like my family was, my friends. My life. "Our fault." I whispered. The Doctor looked at me in worry, obviously trying to understand what I meant.

"Listen here you little insect—" Van Statten began but Goddard cut him off by pulling up a schematic of the entire structure we were currently inhabiting.

"That's us, right below the surface. That's the cage, and that's the Dalek." She mapped it out for us. The Doctor's attention was taken from my emotional breakdown .

"This museum of yours. Have you got any alien weapons?" He queried.

" Lots of them, but the trouble is the Dalek's between us and them." Goddard responded and the Doctor looked unperturbed by that prospect.

"We've got to keep that thing alive. We could just seal the entire vault, trap it down there." Henry tried to preserve the Dalek yet again, my outbreak obviously not getting through to him. The Doctor glared at him in disgust.

" Leaving everyone trapped with it. Rose is down there. I won't let that happen. Have you got that? It's got to go through this area. What's that?" He took charge yet again.

"Weapons testing." Goddard said.

"Give guns to the technicians, the lawyers, anyone. Everyone. Only then have you got a chance of killing it." The Doctor proclaimed. I shook my head,

"Doctor, it won't work. You have to get those people_ out_ of there!" He turned his glare to me.

"There isn't any time and besides this is the one chance we've got. I know what I'm doing." He said with utter confidence.

"Why won't you listen to me?" I demanded of him. "I know your future and I'm telling you that this is suicide!"

"And I'm telling you that you know you can't interfere with these events so butt out like you were content to do for so long recently." He shot back at me, his venom one of hurt instead of anger. I was about to retort that I couldn't control this weird vortex thingy I had going on when Van Statten decided that it would be wise to interrupt.

"I thought you were the great expert, Doctor. If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs. Everything needs something."

"What's the nearest town?" The Doctor asked.

"Salt Lake City." Van Statten informed him, not understanding his sudden change in topic.

"Population?"

"One million."

"All dead. If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature. That's all it needs. "The Doctor informed the man with a blunt tone and demeanor.

"But why would it do that?" Henry nearly yelled.

"Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing and you, Van Statten, you've let it loose! The Dalek's surrounded by a force field. The bullets are melting before they even hit home, but it's not indestructible." He turned back to talking to the guards over the intercom.

"If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. That's the weak spot."

"Thank you, Doctor, but I think I know how to fight one single tin robot. Positions!"

"Doctor, listen to me. I don't know who I am to you and I know I've only met you twice. I know I've hurt you in some way and I don't know how to fix it. But what I know most of all is that these men are going to die horrible, gruesome deaths if you don't get them out of there now and Rose will get caught up in the mess. _Please." _I begged him, grasping his arm to catch his attention. But this was the Doctor fresh from war. He wasn't one to listen to begging and there was a Dalek involved. He shook is arm out of my grasp and listened in. Whatever I had done must have really upset him to bring about this 180 in his attitude towards me. He went from being defensive to cold in seconds flat.

"On my mark. Open fire!" The Commander yelled and the screen switched on.

"We've got vision." Goddard said redundantly.

"It wants us to see." The Doctor murmured, perhaps giving new weight to my words. There was nonstop firing for what seemed like forever and the Dalek just stood there taking it. Then it turned the tide and I looked away, unable to watch the people getting fried. More tears prickled my eyes and I dry-heaved as I heard the sounds of gore going on below us. Then it stopped.

"Perhaps it's time for a new strategy. Maybe we should consider abandoning this place." Van Statten suggested. This time I started to fly a punch in his direction but the Doctor caught my fist, apologetically it would seem as it looked like he wanted nothing more than to do that himself.

"Except there's no power to the helipad, sir. We can't get out." Goddard reminded Henry through her teeth.

"You said we could seal the vault." The Doctor said slowly, trying to avoid looking me in the eyes. He knew I had been right and was even now ruing not listening to my pleas.

"It was designed to be a bunker in the event of nuclear war. Steel bulkheads." Van Statten responded to the statement.  
"There's not enough power, those bulkheads are massive." Goddard told them. They went through how they could bypass the power and Henry even offered to help stating that he didn't want to die. Of course saving his own skin was his top priority. Suddenly the Dalek appeared, demanding to speak to the Doctor.

"You're going to get rusty." He said bitterly as he took in the sprinklers it had used to make the room a massive conductor before electrocuting those within.

"I fed off the DNA of Rose Tyler. Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveler regenerated me." That explained how it was up and moving, even though that seemed new for a Dalek.

"What's your next trick?" The Doctor sarcastically asked.

"I have been searching for the Daleks."

"Yeah, I saw. Downloading the internet. What did you find?"

"I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes." It tried to intimidate.  
"And?" The Doctor prompted.

"Nothing. Where shall I get my orders from now?" It said and a pregnant pause filled the air. I almost felt pity towards it.

"You're just a soldier without commands." The Doctor spit out in disgust to the metal robot.

"Then I shall follow the Primary Order, the Dalek instinct to destroy, to conquer." It tried to find a new purpose.  
"What for? What's the point? Don't you see it's all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for." He looked at me then, staring at my shirt adorned with the eleven of them and the Seal of Rassilon still clasped to my chest. I shook my head at him and looked pointedly from my shirt to him. He was still the Doctor, that wasn't gone. He turned his back to me once again, this time not out of hurt but of grief.

"Then what should I do?" The Dalek needed to know. They needed a command.

"All right, then. If you want orders, follow this one. Kill yourself." The Doctor informed him, no pity and only blazing rage and despair evident.

"The Daleks must survive!" The Dalek was outraged at the suggestion.

"The Daleks have failed! Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct. Rid the Universe of your filth. Why don't you just die?" The Doctor almost sounded like he was pleading with the Dalek at the end of that sentence, mixed with a frustration at the continuing existence of his enemy.

"You would make a good Dalek." The screen went blank with the Doctor gaping at it. I walked up to the Doctor and turned him to face me.

"No Doctor, you wouldn't." I made sure he understood that and after his eyes flickered with disbelief I engulfed him in a hug which, after a moment of being stiff, he returned.

"I thought I had lost you too." He murmured down to me. "Gone like everyone else I ever loved. The one person who I knew would always be there. You've run for too long, too far. I thought you had gone for good." His voice was strained.

"I'm sorry." I said, unsure of what to make of this. Obviously it had been a long time since he had last seen me and he thought I was dead, which had for some reason affected him greatly. "Always be there" he had said. Would I never get home?

"Seal the vault." He said after abruptly letting me go from his strong embrace. He and Van Statten got to work.  
"What?! Doctor, Rose is down there!" I hastily told him. His eyes widened slightly in recognition and he went to dial Rose.

"This isn't the time!" She told him, sounding out of breath.

"Where are you?" He asked.

"Level forty-nine."

"You've got to keep moving. The vault's being sealed off up at level forty-six."

"Can't you stop them closing?" Rose asked, panting.

"I'm the one who's closing them. I can't wait and I can't help you. Now _run_!" He told her hastily. I bit my lip, unsure of what to do.

"Done it, we've got power to the bulkheads." Van Statten said triumphantly.

"The Dalek's right behind them." Goddard noted their progress.

"Doctor, I can't sustain the power. The whole system is failing. Doctor, you've got to close the bulkheads." Van Statten said. The Doctor looked conflicted, but he had made up his mind.

"I'm sorry." He said.  
"Doctor wait!" I called out but it was too late. He had hit enter.

"The vaults is sealed." Van Statten said a few seconds later and I let out a shaky breath, unable to spare Rose the hassle and terror of the next few minutes.

"Rose, where are you? Rose, did you make it?" The Doctor frantically inquired of his companion.

"Sorry, I was a bit slow. " I heard her say softly from the earpiece the Doctor had. His eyes flashed in anguish.

"See you, then, Doctor. It wasn't your fault. Remember that, okay? It wasn't your fault. And do you know what? I wouldn't have missed it for the world." Rose Tyler, the Bad Wolf and indominable spirit said, trying to comfort the Doctor before she died.

"Exterminate!" The Dalek shouted. Then there was silence as the Doctor wrenched out the earpiece and threw it on the table in disbelief and pain.

"I killed her." He said softly, full of self-hatred.

"I'm sorry." Henry said as consolingly as an egomaniac could.

"I said I'd protect her. She was only here because of me, and you're sorry? I could've killed that Dalek in its cell, but you stopped me." He turned, his fury flaring up now.

"It was the prize of my collection!" Van Statten defended himself.

"Your _collection_? But was it worth it? Worth all those men's deaths? Worth Rose? Worth the _torture _that you inflicted on Jessica, an innocent girl who just happened to be in the wrong place in the wrong time like Rose was? Let me tell you something, Van Statten. Mankind goes into space to explore, to be part of something greater." He told the sorry and lonely little man.

"Exactly! I wanted to touch the stars!" Van Statten tried.

"You just want to drag the stars down and stick them underground, underneath tons of sand and dirt, and label them. You're about as far from the stars as you can get. And you took her down with you. She was nineteen years old." His voice broke at the end of this.

"Doctor, it wasn't your fault." I said gently.

"Yes it was. You tried to tell me and I didn't listen and now Rose is dead, just like everyone else." He told me, defeated. The door opened and in walked Adam, further igniting the Doctor's infamous temper.

"You were quick on your feet, leaving Rose behind." The Doctor accused.  
"I'm not the one who sealed the vault!" He got in the Doctor's face. The screen turned on and I saw a hesitant but not entirely scared Rose Tyler, who was still breathing, in front of a Dalek with nothing to lose.

"Open the bulkhead or Rose Tyler dies." It said somewhat ominously.

"You're alive!" The Doctor said in a joy full of relief.

"Can't get rid of me." She joked.

"I thought you were dead." He replied earnestly.  
"Open the bulkhead!" The Dalek ordered.

"Don't do it!" Rose ordered bravely.

"What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?" The Dalek asked the Doctor in all seriousness. The Doctor looked conflicted but gave in.

"I killed her once. I can't do it again." The Doctor said and he let in the Dalek and Rose.

"What do we do now, you bleeding heart?" Van Statten growled at the Doctor's choice.

"Kill it when it gets here." Adam suggested.

"All the guns are useless, and the alien weapons are in the vault." Goddard scoffed.

"Only the catalogued ones." Adam responded and he took off, beckoning the Doctor to come with. He grabbed my hand and towed me along.  
"Doctor?" I asked.

"I just got you back Jessica LeAnn Smith. There's no way I'm letting you leave my sight any time soon so live up to your name Girl Who Runs and _run_." Off we went to save Rose and as my feet pounded against the pavement I couldn't help but wonder just _what_ was I to the Doctor?


	5. What Should be the End of the Daleks

We got to Adam's workshop and the Doctor started to look through Adam's junk.

"Broken. Broken. Hair dryer." He said while pawing through the items and tossing them aside one by one.

"Mister Van Statten tends to dispose of his staff, and when he does he wipes their memory. I kept this stuff in case I needed to fight my way out one day." Adam told the Doctor with a slight gleam in his eyes, excitement brimming at the idea of an adventure waiting to just happen.

"What, you in a fight? I'd like to see that." The Doctor scoffed at him and his ideas of childish grandeur.

"I could do." He defended himself.

"What are you going to do, throw your A-levels at them?" Then the Doctor found something that would service against the Dalek. "Oh, yes. Lock and load." He said, happily loading the weapon. A bit too happy considering what he was going to have to use it to do. It seemed quite out of character for him.

We finally tracked down Rose and the Dalek to what could only be described as a pitiful sight. There was a hole blasted in the roof and the gray squishy squid like life within the Dalek's armor was exposed.

"Get out of the way. Rose, get out of the way now!" The Doctor called out to her.

"No. I won't let you do this." She declared getting in the way of the Doctor's aim.

"That_ thing_ killed hundreds of people." He spit out the word "thing" like a curse. The anger was rolling off him in waves as he was yet again face to face with the beings he hated most in the universe.

"It's not the one pointing the gun at me." She countered his declaration.

"I've got to do this. I've got to end it. The Daleks destroyed my home, my people. I've got nothing left." The Doctor said, but it seemed more like he was trying to convince himself than Rose.

"Doctor, you have me." I said quietly so as not to upset him. He looked at me with a brokenhearted expression.

"But for how long? How long until you disappear and don't come back?"

"Look at it." Rose pleaded.

"What's it doing?" The Doctor asked, obviously confused.

"It's the sunlight, that's all it wants." Rose explained, gesturing to the Dalek that wasn't really any longer a Dalek.

"But it can't." The Doctor said stubbornly.

"It couldn't kill Van Statten, it couldn't kill me. It's changing. What about you, Doctor? What are you changing into?" Rose demanded of the Doctor. He visibly looked ashamed.

"I couldn't. I wasn't. Oh, Rose. They're all dead." He said, his voice breaking and what looked like tears starting to prick the corners of his eyes in the unbearable grief of being the last of his kind.

"Why do we survive?" The Dalek voiced what the Doctor had been wondering since the end of the war.

"I don't know." He answered honestly.

"I am the last of the Daleks." It said mournfully, which was odd to hear coming from a Dalek.

"You're not even that. Rose did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're mutating." He said with a look of pity now finally gracing his features. He knew what it was like to be changed so much.

"Into what?" The Dalek asked, fear starting to seep into its robotic tones.

"Something new. I'm sorry." He said, truly meaning it. I looked on at the Dalek with my own sense of peculiar pity.

"Isn't that better?" Rose asked, not understanding what a Dalek was truly made of.

"No Rose. Not for a creature like a Dalek." I said, trying to help her understand. She gave me a small look of curiosity as though wondering how I knew about the Daleks in the first place.

"I can feel so many ideas. So much darkness. Rose, give me orders. Order me to die." The Dalek pleaded, unable to handle the oncoming human emotions. Then it hit me. That is what truly deep down terrifies a Dalek: being able to feel, become aware of what it truly was.

"I can't do that." Rose shook her head, her good nature preventing her from causing it to kill itself.

"This is not life. This is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!" The Dalek was terrified now, pleading for an end to the oncoming awareness.

"Do it." Rose said shortly, understanding that this was the only option she truly had.

"Are you frightened, Rose Tyler?"

"Yeah." She said to its inquiries.

"And what about you, Jessica Smith, Sentinel and friend of the Doctor?" It directly addressed me. I blinked, unfamiliar with the title and a bit worried that it knew me from any other human.

"I am terrified." I answered honestly.

"So am I. Exterminate." It said feebly, trying to retain its nature whilst killing its last victim a brand new species that never could truly exist or continue. And then it died, self-destructing in a ball of energy.

"C'mon. Let's get back to the TARDIS." The Doctor gestured to me and Rose who followed after him. Rose continued to give me a curious glance from time to time, unsure of who or what I was. I ignored her, knowing that she really didn't mean anything by it but genuine confusion.

We finally got back to the TARDIS and I heard a humming coming from deep within her. I smiled and gently put my hand on the door.

"Nice to see you too." I said and the TARDIS hummed again in mutual agreement to my statement.

"A little piece of home. Better than nothing." He said whilst patting the TARDIS affectionately.

"Is that the end of it, the Time War?" Rose asked. I wanted desperately to spill what I knew, how this was far from over but the Doctor beat me to the punch.

"I'm the only one left. I win. How about that?" The Doctor gave a sardonic half-smile to the statement and it broke my heart.

"The Dalek survived. Maybe some of your people did too like, Jessica was it?" Rose asked, obviously seeking more information on who I was.

"Oh I'm not a Time Lord. I'm completely human like you." I said automatically stopping her in her tracks.

"Then how did you get here?" Rose asked.

"Bit of a long story actually. I apparently can jump through the vortex and tend to do that for very often." I said tiredly.

"What?" Rose asked again.

"Jessica pops in and out every once and awhile. We tend to meet out of order but that's okay, always happy to get to see her. I've known her for centuries." Rose looked befuddled at this statement.

"Okay then." She said, accepting what the Doctor had just laid out with little qualms. I was glad too. I really didn't want to go too much into detail. But since she had already seen so much and was a generally amiable person she was willing to extend the friendship that the Doctor was giving to me.  
"We should meet properly then if I'm going to see you again. Rose Tyler." She extended her hand. I gratefully accepted it.

"Jessica Smith."

"The Girl Who Runs." The Doctor tacked on. I gave him an annoyed look.

"Why do you keep calling me that?"

"What, you do. Every time I see you it's non-stop chaos and running. I've suspected for some time now that you and the TARDIS are in it together to get me to places that are absolutely brimming in chaos." He teased. I just rolled my eyes.

"Whatever."

"Tell me, when do you think you'll outgrow your teenage American phase, it hardly suits someone of your maturity level." He queried. I stuck my tongue out at him to which he just chuckled. "Well, good to see that you were always this spirited from the beginning."

Before I could say anything back we heard footsteps approaching.

"We'd better get out. Van Statten's disappeared. They're closing down the base. Goddard says they're going to fill it full of cement, like it never existed." Adam related, out of breath by the time he got to the TARDIS. The Doctor instantly tensed. Oh boy, here comes the grudge match and verbal volley.

"About time." Rose grumbled to which I agreed wholeheartedly.

"I'll have to go back home." Adam said sadly.  
"Better hurry up then. Next flight to Heathrow leaves at fifteen hundred hours." Now he was just showing off. Rose wasn't having any of it.

"Adam was saying that all his life he wanted to see the stars." Rose continued his thoughts for him.

"Tell him to go and stand outside, then." The Doctor had no sympathy. I could understand, Adam had helped Van Statten to drag down the stars so to speak when he worked with him. Plus he had up and abandoned Rose.

"He's all on his own, Doctor, and he did help." Rose tried.

"He left you down there." The Doctor countered.

"So did you!" Rose shot back. I sighed, knowing where this was going to end.

"What're you talking about? We've got to leave." Adam warned urgently. I felt my stomach start to flutter and my senses started to blur.

"Oh not now." I mumbled.

"Plus, he's a bit pretty." The Doctor insinuated other motives behind Rose's request.

"I hadn't noticed." Rose said determinedly. My legs started to wobble and I clutched the TARDIS.

"On your own head." He said and then turned to unlock the door. His eyes landed on me and suddenly he became very sad. Grabbing my hand he gently pulled me into the TARDIS and set me down. Rose followed after us.

"What're you doing? She said cement. She wasn't joking. We're going to get sealed in." Adam went on.

"You doing okay?" The Doctor asked, ignoring his soon to be stowaway.

"Besides feeling like my insides are being torn to shreds? Fine." I brought my hand up to brush my hair out of my face and saw that it was phasing in and out of reality. "Doctor!" I gasped.

"It'll be alright. It'll pass and then you'll see me again, like you always do. I promise." He said and gave me a small hug.

"I don't want to leave yet, I barely got to see you!" I protested. He looked sadly at me.

"I know but this is how it works. I'm sorry." Rose came in and saw me.

"Doctor is she going to be okay?" She asked, biting her lip in concern.

"Doctor? What're you doing standing inside a box? Rose?" Adam called and started to come in.

"She'll be fine. You'll probably see her again. I don't know when but you will." And then I faded fully and entered the vortex, it roaring in my ears and jettisoning me off towards a different Doctor and era. And then I woke up in the middle of a military base with a man looking down over me who I would recognize anywhere.

"Miss Smith?" Brigadier Alistar Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart asked. I gave a small moan in response and then decided that the ground was rather comfortable, ignoring the frantic calls of a man in a velvety suit and a large bowtie with snow white hair as he ran over.

"Jessie?" The third Doctor asked, himself barely focused in my view. And then, with the stress of the days culminating I simply passed out after saying:

"Hello again Doctor."


	6. The Three Doctors and I

"—don't understand it. First you say this alien organism is hunting you, that there was an explosion from it in the garage, and now Miss Smith appears out of thin air. What on earth is going on here Doctor?"

"It is precisely something not of this earth, indeed not from this galaxy that is hunting me Brigadier. What more would you like me to say?" The third Doctor said. I was aware of the fact that a velvety coat was cradling my head and they were hovering over me and talking.

"Are you trying to tell me that this whole thing has been arranged just for your benefit?" Brigadier asked the Doctor.

"Oh yes, that's right. You see that stuff simply ignored me as soon as it saw the Doctor." Jo said. I stirred slightly and started to sit up, holding my throbbing head. The Doctor immediately got down on one knee to assist me.

"Careful Jessie. Your body is in a state of extreme exhaustion. Take it slowly." He said and grasped my hand so that I had leverage to heave myself up. I nodded and grimaced at the pain that that movement brought but I sat up all the same.

"Are you alright?" Jo asked me.

"Y-yeah." I said, my voice cracking. I blushed at the sound.

"You don't seem to be alright. Multiple lacerations, bruises, slight swelling around the wrist, just where were you recently Jessica?" The Doctor asked.

"Can't say. 's your future." I mumbled. He sighed.

"Very well. Stay with me and I'll see what I can do to treat your injuries in the TARDIS."

"I'm glad that Miss Smith is going to be alright, but I have to ask, what about this chap Ollis?" The Brigadier intoned, trying to steer things back on track to the big security issue.

"Oh, I don't know. Well, perhaps this thing was confused, or its instructions weren't getting through. " The Doctor replied in response to the question about the…organism?

"And Tyler?" Alistair questioned.

"Tyler? Yeah. Yes, that was its second mistake, here in this laboratory where I usually work. And its third mistake was Bessie." The Doctor responded to his questioning.

"And you were in Bessie." Jo added to clarify that he was the target.

"Yes." The Doctor agreed.

"Are you alright?" I asked, worried about him. He smiled reassuringly.

"You are in a far worst state than me my dear." He assured me in his own courteous manner.

"And you think there's a link between the beam and this, this organism thing." Stated the Brigadier.

"Yes, I do. I think that that beam was the method it used to get here," asserted the Doctor. The Brigadier looked tired.

"Well, now it's arrived, and it's hostile, and it's still here, so what do we do and how do we find it?"

"We don't find it, Brigadier. If we wait around here long enough, it'll find us." So he sat patiently to wait, gesturing to Jo and I to follow suit. I did. A few moments later there was the staccato of gunfire coming from outside. I was surprised at how easily the Brigadier was taking my just showing up. I supposed he had grown used to strange things occurring with the Doctor, and I was just another one in a very long line. Same with Jo, I suspected ,and her reaction to me. Alistair went to check the window.

"What are those creatures? Where are they coming from?" He demanded of the Doctor.

"Obviously from the same source as that organism thing. First the scout, then the reinforcements. " He said and waved away the questioning.

"Their grasp of military tactics is very good." Lethbridge-Stewart said, almost begrudgingly.

"Well, let's hope Sergeant Benton's are even better." Jo added.  
"I certainly do." I added my two cents worth. It turns out they weren't. The men were being overrun by the creatures outside.

"I'd better see what's happening. You stay here, Doctor." The Brigadier ordered.

"Not much point in my going anywhere else is there?" He called after him. He turned to us.

"I think you ought to get out of here too, Jo, Jessie."

"No way am I going anywhere Doctor. I know that the safest place to be in situations like this is by your side and besides, I just got here. You're not getting rid of me so easily." I crossed my arms and sent a glare his way at the suggestion.

"Same goes for me Doctor." Jo agreed. He scowled at me slightly.

"You're being a bad influence on her." He gestured towards his companion. Jo scoffed.

"As if I would leave you anyway." Before the Doctor could argue Sergeant Benton climbed through the window and I smiled. It looked like I was getting to meet all my favorite UNIT boys today, even though I hadn't really gotten to talk to the Brig it was pretty exciting.

"Right, Jo, Doctor, have you seen the Brigadier?" He asked and then did a double take. "Jessica Smith? What are you doing here?" Before I could answer the Doctor interrupted.

"Sergeant Benton. Just the man I wanted to see. Will you please take Miss Grant with you, and Jessie too? Even if you have to carry one of them." He directed that last statement my way.

" I'm sorry, Doc, my orders were to report to the Brigadier." He said respectfully.  
"You're orders Sergeant—" The Doctor began and then there was a sudden flash of light and a loud noise. The organism that the Doctor had been talking about before was here and it was hunting again.

"Into the TARDIS, quickly!" The Doctor ordered and shepherded us in. He shut the doors behind us and turned on the shields.

"You were going off without me, weren't you?" Jo scolded. The Doctor said nothing.

"Well, Sergeant, aren't you going to say it that it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside? Everybody else does." He instead addressed Benton who had been gaping in shock.

"It's pretty obvious, isn't it? Anyway, nothing to do with you surprises me anymore, Doctor. You or Miss Smith." He indicated me to which I smiled slightly.

"Thanks for the complement Sergeant." I said and gave a sloppy salute. He smiled back at my cheekiness.

The Doctor pulled a lever on the TARDIS consul but nothing happened. He tried again and it didn't work.

"It's not reacting. There's only one thing for it. I'll have to send an SOS. I hate having to call them, but, there we are. "My stomach turned.

"You can't be serious." I said while addressing him and shaking my head. This was probably one of the worst times in the Doctor's rocky relationship with his people.  
"What were you planning to do, anyhow? " Jo asked.

"I was planning to lure that stuff away from Earth, Jo, but now as it seems to have immobilized the TARDIS, I'm not going anywhere. We're trapped." He said apologetically looking at me and understanding my apprehension.

"So what are we going to do?" Jo continued.

"At least we can watch that thing in comfort, and then we can send in a report and see what they have to say about it." The Doctor responded. I crossed my arms.

"Because they are so giving and helpful." I muttered.  
"Who are they?" Benton wanted in on the situation.

"The Time Lords. Oh, things are pretty serious." She said solemnly.

"Yes, they are." The Doctor said and sent in the communication's request. I for my part didn't even want to see them. I knew what they had done to Two and his companions, and how they had stranded Three after branding him a criminal. I was far from being okay with that.

A seconds later there was the sound of a TARDIS materializing but we weren't moving.

"That's odd. Nobody touched anything did they?" Three asked.

"No." Benton, Jo, and I chorused.  
"But you heard it though, didn't you?" The Doctor said.

"Yes, and felt it too. Could it be that stuff outside?" Jo wondered.

"No, I don't think so. Hello, what's this?" He plucked a recorder off of the consul and my stomach started to flutter. I had seen brief clips of this episode, I didn't know it by heart but I did know who the recorder belonged to.

"It seems strangely familiar. Is it yours, Jo?" Jo responded in the negative.

"Of course it isn't it's—"

"Thank you." A voice said and a disembodied hand plucked the recorder from the Third Doctor's hand before the body fully materialized.

"I was wondering where that had got to." He said and my face spread into a wide grin as I took in the form of the Second Doctor in all his shabby clothed glory. He played a few notes on the recorder.

"You haven't been trying to play this have you? Oh. I can see you've been doing the TARDIS up a bit. Hmm. I don't like it." He declared and then he took me in.

"Jessie! My dear it is wonderful to see you!" He said and opened his arms, fully expecting a hug. I obliged happily while Three looked on in what seemed to be slight distaste and… was that jealousy? After the bear hug he turned to the consul.  
"Oh my word." He said after turning a nob. The organism outside was wrecking the laboratory.

"Oh dear, we are in trouble, aren't we? Just as well I turned up." Two said with a slight air of arrogance. I smile and rolled my eyes.

"Doctor, who on earth—" Jo tried.

"Doctor! Where did you spring from?" Benton asked. Two turned to look at him.

"Now don't tell me. Corporal Benton, isn't it?" The second Doctor asked and clapped his hands together.

"Sergeant Benton now." He said, indicating his new rank. They both exchanged greetings while Jo interrogated Three on who Two was.

"He's not one of them, is he?" She asked wondering if he was a Time Lord.

"Well, not so much one of them as one of us. One of me to be precise." The third Doctor said loud enough that the second heard him.

"Oh no, no, no, no. I'm sorry, my dear, I hate to be contrary but I can see he's a little bit confused, poor old chap, and I do feel you should have the correct explanation. You don't mind, do you?" He asked, drawing Jo aside.

"Yes." Three said, bristling at the attention his previous self had acquired.

"I didn't think you would. You see, Jo. I may call you Jo, mayn't I? You see, he is one of me." Two pointed to himself. I facepalmed as they went on to try and explain regeneration to Jo who quoted a Beatles song at them about them all being together. Two inquired as how to play it on his recorder when Three shushed him.

Eventually Jo was able to come to terms with it and the third and second Doctors hashed out why Two was there.

"My dear fellow, you are being a bit dim, aren't you? Your effectiveness is now doubled!" Two said happily.

"Halved, more like it." The third said, grumpy at his past self.

"Now, now. There's no need to be ungracious. Suppose we have a look at our problem, shall we? Er, you don't mind, do you?" The second Doctor indicated the consul.

"Oh, be my guest." Three said, and I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic.

"Oh, thank you." Two responded in like.

"Dear old Lethbridge-Stewart. Still blazing away as usual." Two said while observing the situation. "Tenacious that one. Just like you Jessie." The second Doctor complimented. I smirked at him, knowing that he meant foolishly stubborn.  
"No more so than you Doctor. Both of you." I said to try and draw Three in on the banter. Benton inquired as to what they could do while I slipped away for a moment to try and get more comfortable. I found a bathroom right down the hall and stepped inside. There was a clean outfit of a purple tank top and khaki shorts. I pulled my hair back into a half-bun, brushed my teeth, and then clasped my pin again on my new shirt, finishing off the look with a dark purple cardigan. I didn't look half bad, and certainly felt better in fresh clothes.

Coming back I noticed that I hadn't been gone too long.

"Well, you've been fiddling with it, haven't you? " Oh man, they were squabbling still.

"It was perfectly alright until you touched it. Now if you'd just leave things to me." Three said imperiously.

"If we were to leave things with you, my dear fellow, we'd be in a fine pickle, wouldn't we?" Two mocked. I sighed.

"That's enough! Both of you, you've done nothing but argue since you saw each other. Quit acting like children." I put my hands on my hips and scolded the two of them. They looked properly chastised, which I found to be quite amusing.

"She is correct you know." A voice said behind us on the screen. All of us jumped and whirled to see One on it.

"No way." I murmured.  
"So you're my replacements. Huh. A dandy and a clown. Have you done anything?" One asked his other selves.

"Well, we've, er, assessed the situation." Two started to say.

"Just as I thought. Nothing. And it took a young woman centuries your younger to even get you back on track. Hello by the way Miss Smith. Delightful to see you as always." I gave a small wave in acknowledgement. So all the Doctors knew me. I didn't know whether to be ecstatic or horribly depressed that this is what my life had become for good.

"Well it's not easy, you know." Three defended.

"It's not as if we know what that stuff is." Two sided with Three for the first time.

"No." Three agreed.

"Then I'll tell you. It's a time bridge." One said impatiently.

"It's a what?" Two asked in disbelief while Three understood immediately.

"Now, what's a bridge for, eh?" One asked.

"Well, let me see—" Two started to wonder.

"Crossing?" Three immediately asked.

"Right. So stop dilly-dallying and cross it!" One said and started to vanish. The two other Doctors started to frantically try and get him back. They seemed to really need his advice.

"I hate to ask, but who was that?"

"Me." They answered both at once. "Me!" They said in sync again whilst glaring at the other.  
"Call, will you?" Two said and I got a bad feeling.  
"Heads." Three said. Two tossed the coin in the air and caught it, then shoved it triumphantly in his pocket.

"Hard luck." He said with a less than apologetic shrug.

"Alright. Stand by to disconnect the force field." Three accepted his fate.

"What are you going to do?" Benton asked.

"Doctor?" I asked and they both looked at me then Three looked ahead, while Two looked slightly guilty when he saw my concern.

"Now!" Three said and charged out.

"Wait!" I yelled and followed as Jo called out to the Doctor as well. Jo followed me in sprinting towards the third Doctor.

"Jo, Jessie, get back!" He said as we grabbed onto his arms and suddenly we were engulfed by a bright flash and sent hurling across time and space to a whole different universe where the laws of physics were all but broken and another Time Lord waited in the darkness for the Doctor to come to him.


	7. Omega Level Trouble

I wondered if I'd ever get used to having so many headaches. The Doctor's voice sounded in my ear as I regained consciousness but I didn't know how to stop the ringing that accompanied it.

"Jo? Jessie? Can you hear me? Wake up!" He inquired urgently. I sat up and rubbed my head. I saw Jo besides me doing the exact same thing.

"Where are we? Everything seems so strange." Jo said and I snorted.

"That's something you should just come to expect with the Doctor." Jo gave me an agreeing nod and the Doctor quirked a grin at my remark.

"Are you two alright?" He asked and looked us over, his gaze lingering on my injuries from my time with the crazy Van Staten.

"We're not…?" Jo began as a suddenly horrible thought hit her.

"Jo." The Doctor said in a somewhat accusatory voice.

"We are, aren't we? We're dead." She stated glumly.

"I don't think so Jo." I responded comfortingly.

"This is a place. It's just like any other place. Well, almost. We've been brought here. Anyway, it's not much like heaven, is it? Come on, let's go and take a look around." The Doctor encouraged us and helped Jo and I to our feet. I gratefully accepted his help and we started to walk out of what looked like a giant rock quarry with great white stone.

"So Jessica, how have you been?" The Doctor asked after a few minutes of walking.

"I'm-I don't know Doctor." I told him truthfully.

"What's wrong? Aren't you glad to see us? Your visits always cheer up Mister Grumpy over here." Jo teased the Doctor and me at the same time. The Doctor gave his companion a slight look but raised an eyebrow echoing her sentiments.

"It's just… I'm still pretty new to this and while it's fun to joke and laugh about it… I just don't know. It's been rough." The Doctor and Jo shared a quick glance and communicated silently. Talk about being on the same wavelength.

"I'm going to go take a look around a bit further ahead. You two need to talk." Jo said and she took off.

"Not too far Jo!" The Doctor called after her. I heard her chuckle at his mother henning but she continued on anyway.

We continued in silence for a moment before the Doctor gently grabbed my arm and turned me to face him.

"Jessica, what happened?" He asked pleadingly. I shook my head at him.

"Your future—"

"Vague details will suffice. Talk of something that is completely probable already and we can avoid paradoxes. You need someone to speak to. You're pale, you have already collapsed from exhaustion, and your heartbeat and breathing are increasingly high. Please Jessie, I only want to help." The third Doctor gave me a look of sincere worry and I saw a hint of Nine's protectiveness and fury, some of Ten's sorrow at my distress.

"I just don't understand Doctor. My life's been turned upside down and there's nothing I or you can do about it. I meet you in the very distant future and you knew me, talked as if you've always known me. If that's true then you don't have a way to help me, at least not for a very long time. Do I ever get home?" The Doctor looked slightly hurt at the question. "On top of that my first stop in dropped me right in the middle of a scheme of the Master's and since then I've been running non-stop. I've been chased at by soldiers, police, and… Some other nasty alien beings. I've been told I'm a thief and I've been accused of abandonment and on top of that I've seen people slaughtered. Mowed down like they were nothing. So tell me Doctor, how did you feel when all the killing started?" His eyes darkened and I sighed, not even able to cry about this anymore. I knew it was time to move on, accept that this was my life but it was only my third jump and already people kept _dying._ I was accustomed to television violence and actor's pretending that they were dead, not seeing corpses first hand. Until recently I had never witnessed cold blooded killing before, not really. And I hated it.

I knew it wasn't the Doctor's fault, none of this, but he was right. I needed to vent.

"I'm sorry Jessica Smith. I wish I could say it gets easier with time, but it doesn't." He gave my arm a squeeze of comfort and we walked in heavy silence for a few moments until I tried to lighten the mood.

"How come you don't play the recorder anymore?" I questioned. He looked taken aback at my inquiry. Jo had continued down the way, still in our sight but gave us some space.

"I—I suppose I have no interest in it anymore. I have other things to occupy my time." He evenly replied but I could sense some discomfort. Deciding not to push the subject anymore we met up with Jo. It was strange but there was a water dispenser and a huge… I think it was a computer? The seventies. How far we've come.

"That's odd." The Doctor indicated the items.

"I don't think this belongs here." I said pointing at a water cooler, albeit redundantly stated.

"Hey, surely that's the water cooler from outside the lab." Jo relayed. The Doctor agreed and pointed out that the Brigadier's computer was there as well while I chuckled at the size of it.

"You know that your century's technology looks practically like stone wheels to us Time Lords." The Doctor told me good-naturedly and I stopped feeling sheepish.

"Look, this is the lab door." The Doctor pointed it out. I pulled on it and it didn't open.

"It's locked." Jo stated.

"Well it says 'No Admittance'." The Doctor shrugged. They crossed over to a desk with a strange machine on it.

"Yes. Well, we both know what that is, don't we?" He shared a knowing look with Jo.

"We sure do."

"And it is?" I asked, completely out of the loop.

"The thing that started this whole dreadful business." Three told me and he didn't say much more because something caught his eye.

"Er, Jo, do you see what I see? " He indicated what had gotten his attention.

"No way!" I gaped at the thing before us. Something that was a bit of a legend to any Whovian.

"Oh yes!" Jo cheered happily.

"That clinches it. We have been transported, and so has all this stuff. Come on." And we all ambled down and got into Bessie of all things. The Doctor's bright yellow car and substitute for the TARDIS during his exile on Earth. To be riding in it, even as ridiculous as it seemed, was just plain exciting.

"Right. All we've got to do is find out where we are and who brought us here." The Doctor iterated.

"That simple huh?" I joked, looking around at the bland landscape that stretched as far as the eye could see.

"Well come on then." Jo said.

"Where to?" The Doctor asked.

"Should we just drive around until we find something?" I suggested the obvious and Jo and the Doctor both looked at each other, shrugged, and we were off. After driving around some I told the Doctor to hold on a second, I saw something strange on the grainy surface of the ground.

"It's a set of boot prints. What are these doing here?" I wondered aloud.

"Man Friday, would you believe? " Joked the Doctor.

"I'd believe anything at this pointed." Admitted an exasperated Jo. Then we took off down the trail of the tracks. As fun as it was to watch _Sherlock_ back home, I didn't at all fancy myself a detective and this whole mess was starting to give me a bit of a headache. It seemed that we were chasing our own tail so to speak and had gotten nowhere. As we continued on we finally fell upon what could easily be counted as the best break we had had so far.

"Who's that?" Jo pointed out a man scribbling in some dirt and muttering to himself. That looked a little strange but who were we to judge? I mean honestly, the third Doctor's outfit alone, while dapper, practically screamed alien.

"It's Doctor Tyler. Doctor Tyler!" The Doctor called down and I blinked. I wondered vaguely if he had any connection with Rose Tyler but it is a big universe and full of many people with the last name "Tyler".

"Huh? Why, it's the Doctor, isn't it? And Miss Grant." Doctor Tyler greeted. "Who might this young lady be?" He gestured to me.

"Jessica Smith." I said and extended my hand. He gripped it and gave me a friendly smile.

"Pleasure."

"How did you get here?" Jo asked Tyler.

"Well, I was in your lab, developing that plate, and there was some kind of an explosion and here I am. Oh, it's fascinating." His eyes glittered and I felt like he and the Doctor would have a wonderful time talking all things science.

"Do you know where we are, Doctor Tyler?" Jo questioned.

"No, I don't. Do you Doctor?" He inquired of the Doctor.

"Yes. We're at the other end of that light streak of yours." He said confidently.

"What now?" I felt completely confused and out of the loop.

"We've been transported along it." The Doctor explained.

"Along what?"

"That's in the black hole." Doctor Tyler ignored me and addressed the Doctor. Limited as my scientific knowledge was, even I knew that that was a pretty big deal.

"Yes, exactly. That's where we are. On a stable world in a universe of antimatter. An anomaly within impossibility." The Doctor ruminated. I groaned.

"_Another_ parallel universe?" He frowned slightly at my reaction.

"Huh?" Jo was confused.

"What he means is that a place like this shouldn't exist in a cosmos like this, and even if it does, we shouldn't be here anyway. I think. I haven't the faintest what she means though." Tyler told Jo.

"Oh." Jo responded.

"Well, here we are. Kidnapped and marooned. But by whom?" The Doctor wondered.

"And how about why while we're asking questions." I suggested. Doctor Tyler mentioned that he had seen something he had nicknamed "Gel" roaming around.

"Well, these things sound very much like the creatures that attacked us at UNIT HQ." The Doctor said in response to his descriptions.

"Yeah." Jo agreed.

"What exactly do they look like?" He tried to get a more detailed outline of them in order to try to formulate a hypothesis on just what we were dealing with.

"Like that!" Tyler pointed up the hill and there was a pair of… I can't even describe them. They looked like a walking blob of fake lava; orange at the base with ruby red splotches and crab like appendages in the way of claw-like arms. Jo screamed and my heart sped up. Whatever they were, they didn't look like they intended us anything but ill will.

"Run!" The Doctor ordered and as we started to take off a series of explosions surrounded us. The "Gel's" were obviously displaying their prowess and could easily blow us away if they wished. I looked to the Doctor who gave me a hapless look and raised his hands high above his head. The rest of us followed, surrendering to the blobs. As we were escorted away I wondered how things were going for Two, Benton, the Brigadier, and the rest of UNIT.

We were eventually led to a building (more like a palace) that resembled the look of the Gels.

"It looks like Aladdin's cave." Jo commented on its strangely beautiful appearance.

"It's the entrance to some sort of palace, I should imagine." The Doctor echoed my assessment of the place.

"Think it belongs to the guy who brought us here?" I suggested.

"That seems like a likely possibility." Three granted.  
"And I don't fancy hanging around to meet him. I'm going to try and make a break for it." Tyler said.

"What?" The Doctor demanded, taken aback at the very idea. At first glance it seemed logical and even necessary but upon ruminating on it further I understood the Doctor's hesitance. That'd been some fire show outside and besides, how were we supposed to get back from a place that was supposedly impossible without the help of the one who brought us into the impossibility.  
"The time to make a getaway is now, while we're still near the entrance. Once they get us down that maze of passageways we shall never get out." Tyler informed the Doctor as though he had trouble understanding this.

"My dear Doctor Tyler, I don't want to get out. I want to meet our host. I allowed myself to be brought here for that very purpose." The Doctor shot back. I gave Three a small glare at the fact that he'd been so reckless and without care that he was but he ignored me.

"Perhaps you did, Doctor, but we didn't want to come here and we don't want to stay." Tyler pointed out.

"Speak for yourself please." I piped in. Tyler gave me an exacerbated glance.

"Don't you understand? You were both brought here by accident. Your only chance of getting back lies in my persuading whoever brought you here to send you home." The Doctor's patience was waning.

"I prefer to take a chance on my own. How about you, Miss Grant, Miss Smith? Are you coming with me?" Tyler inquired.

"No thanks, I know enough to know that the best way to stay alive in these situations is to listen to the Doctor." I told him honestly. He looked to Jo. She echoed my sentiments and Tyler shrugged us off, wishing us well, and made to take off.

"Doctor Tyler, you're not going anywhere." Three told him firmly.

"What?"

"I refuse to allow you to endanger all our lives." The Doctor hissed. "Especially Jo's and Jessie's. They should not be made to pay for your foolhardiness."

"No. No, I suppose you're right." Tyler relented. Or at least appeared to because then he booked it out of there.

"Tyler! Tyler, come back! Tyler!" The "Gel" things stopped the Doctor from following, a bit roughly if I am to be frank and I gently pulled him back and away from them in order to minimize the damage they would do to him.

"Idiot. He'll jeopardize the entire operation." Growled the Doctor as he looked down the hall the other doctor had disappeared down.

"With his life, probably." Jo entailed morbidly.

"Yes." Agreed the Doctor grimly. We sat there in silence for a few moments, waiting to see what would occur because of the foolish bolting man.

"They might not harm him. You said we were only here by mistake." Jo offered in the way of conciliatory thinking.

Yes, that's right, Jo. I'm the one they're after. I'm sure I can persuade our host to send you back." The Doctor told us, but it seemed more like he was trying to assure himself than us.

"I sure hope so." I told him with sincerity. "Otherwise they might just decide we aren't worth the trouble and get rid of us."

"Jessie, we're dealing here with a creature of great intelligence, and superior intelligence and senseless cruelty just do not go together." The Doctor scolded me.

"Oh really? How do you explain the Master then?" The accusation tumbled out before I could stop it and he raised an eyebrow at the hostility in my voice along with the small shiver of fear. He looked about ready to respond to that particular statement but was cut off.

"In any case, I hope that whatever this is isn't like him." Jo interjected in the middle of our debate. Suddenly Doctor Tyler came running back towards us and fell face-flat.

"Tyler!" Jo yelped.

"Tyler! Come on, get up. Up, up. Are you all right?" The Doctor helped him up and asked after his safety.

"Yes, I think so. Thanks. That was a bit of a waste of time, wasn't it?" The Gels continued to herd us down some passageways. Doctor Tyler, despite his earlier escapades, wasn't done yet.

"It still doesn't make sense, Doctor. We are matter, and you say this place is antimatter." He was trying to grasp the situation in the best way he could. I understood his feeling desperate for answers.

"That's right." The Doctor agreed.

"So, the mere fact of our being here should cause a colossal explosion."

"I feel pretty good for human pudding." I said with a bit more cheek than necessary I suppose because the Doctor gave me a warning look to shut me down.

"Yes, well, our bodies have been converted, processed in some ways, so that we can exist here." Explained the Doctor, glossing over my disgusting imagery.

"Just as that organism thing could exist in our world?" Jo clarified.

"Yes, exactly."

"I just don't believe it. This is matter. I can see it. Why, I can feel it." Asserted Tyler.

"But things aren't always as they seem, you know, Doctor Tyler. Now, you take this pencil, for example." The Doctor took out a pencil.

"It's just a pencil, isn't it?" Tyler asked.

"Ah, but is it? Watch very, very closely." He held the pencil out at arm's length vertically and then he made it vanish. Another flourish occurred and in the place of the pencil was bouquet of flowers. I felt a tinge of homesickness as I remembered my dad doing similar magic tricks for us kids as we grew up.

"Or is it a bunch of flowers?" The Doctor asked mysteriously and presented them to Jo. She gave him a smile and shook her head at his antics. I shifted next to the Doctor, slightly uncomfortable. I remembered how Jo accidentally ripped the Doctors hearts out when she fell in love and got engaged to someone else and he seemed to be at least in his own strange way flirting with his companion. I really wished I knew how to ease the blow that would come later…

"Ah ha, that's all very well, but that's just a conjuring trick." Tyler countered.

"Yes, that's exactly what this place is, a scientific conjuring trick of a very high order. I think the waiting is over. "The Doctor said ominously as there was a growling/burbling noise that filled the air and seemed to resonate down to our very bones. I grit my teeth at the vibrations bouncing off the cavernous walls. We were escorted in what could've been labeled a throne room.

"It's fabulous!" Jo gushed at the scene before us. It was grand and the red and orange colors that meshed together in here looked less like lava goo and more like gems encrusting walls and building a small throne while elsewhere a column of what looked like smoke billowed in a fine and silvery mist.

"Yes, most impressive, I must admit that." Agreed the Doctor somewhat grudgingly.

"Almost worth the trip just to see this place." Tyler stated. I felt like we were getting off track here.

"It's beautiful but shouldn't we focus on trying to figure out who brought us here and what their plans are for us, or specifically the Doctor, sinister or otherwise?" I queried and that seemed to get their attention. A figure then appeared at the top of a small flight of stairs, his face covered in an almost gladiatorial style mask with a regal robe on and a sweeping collar that also puffed out his shoulders to points. He was majestic looking in a strange and slightly frightening way. His garb resembled that of what I remembered to be common Gallifrey wear, specifically important Time Lords' garb.

"I did. I am the one who brought you here." The figure had a voice booming and as imposing as himself.

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked of the stranger.

"In the legends of your people I am called Omega."

"Omega? But that's impossible. Omega was destroyed." The Doctor breathed and it seemed that he was genuinely surprised for once as something completely unexpected took him off balance. A bit unusual but more than a bit unsettling.

"No, brother Time Lord, I was not destroyed, as you can see." Omega confirmed my analysis of his attire. "Take the man and the woman, but leave this girl here. I may have some use for her." That… That didn't sound good or bode well for me. The Gels collected Tyler and Jo who gave us slightly panicked looks but shuffled after the guards. For my part I moved closer to the Doctor who gently pulled me closer to him, his hand gripping my arm lightly and his body angled in front of me. He seemed to be trying to shield me and in some frustration as he saw the other two humans in his charge taken and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Where are you taking them?" He demanded to know.

"They will not be harmed, Doctor. They have no part in my revenge." The

Gels finished escorting Jo and Tyler out of the room and my breathing sped up. I tried to keep my racing heart under control as yet another psychotic Time Lord laid out his plans for the Doctor.

"I have been grievously wronged, Doctor, and now it is time for my vengeance!" But what role did either of us have in that vengeance and why did he think that I could provide any aid?

**A/N: The Three Doctors is such a fun story that I just had to do it. Three and Two have such an interesting relationship because of the way the Time Lords have treated both of them and the pain that each of those regenerations had to face. Two was used for years as the Celestial Time Agency's pawn, run ragged on missions with the promise of the return of one of his dearest friends as a reward only after decades of loneliness (season 6B ) and if you want to read more about these escapades there is some wonderful stories done by Rochelle Templer and Crystal Rose of Pollux. Seriously, these are some of my favorite fics ever and I immediately accept them as canon because they are too good to not be canon. Two is my favorite Doctor but Three holds a special place in my heart as well and I thought it would be fun to throw in some hints of the struggles he has moving past the loss of his companions by force as the Time Lords either took them away or they left due to old age/death and his abandonment and forced exile on Earth with a bit of spite for the former Doctor who left him in this mess. There's a lot of angst underlying these two what might be seen as campy Doctors and if you look into their stories there's so much potential for character reflection and the like so I enjoy having Jessica interact with them. Anybody pick up on the fact that they call her Jessie while the older Doctors don't? There may be a reason for that if you'll hang with me. Sorry for the book as an author's note but I just wanted to share some of my thoughts. Let me know what you think so far! **

**Happy reading, writing, and obsessing,**

_**Heroicagal**_


	8. Battle of Wills

**A/N: I'm Christian and my work reflects this. I won't bash other religions, nor will I yell at you if you don't agree with me. But please understand that it is essential to my being and therefore all aspects of me should reflect this including my writing so it will. This chapter has a mention of Jessica's (and my own) faith. **

"Without me, there would be no time travel. You and our fellow Time Lords would still be locked in your own time, as puny as those creatures you now so graciously protect like that child there." Omega started in immediately on describing his revenge and his reasoning behind it. The Doctor stiffened at the attention given to me but made no further indication of his worry.

"You knew your mission was dangerous." He countered to Omega's position and claims.

"Dangerous, yes, but I completed it, and I did not expect to be abandoned. Many thousands of years ago, when I left our planet, all this was then a star until I arranged its detonation."

"You were the solar engineer. It was your duty." Three said, undeterred. His duty. How many things had the Time Lords done in the name of duty? How many of their own people had they treated with callous disregard because of their "duty"? The Doctor certainly wasn't the only one.

"It was an honor, or so I thought then. I was to be the one to find and create the power source that would give us mastery over time itself." Omega continued.

"Well, you succeeded, and are revered for it. " The Doctor assured him.

"Revered? Here? I was abandoned." Omega bitterly spat out at the Doctor's counterargument.

"The histories say that you were lost in the supernova." The Doctor tried to tell him that he was indeed not abandoned but assumed dead.

"I was sacrificed to that supernova. I generated those forces, and for what? To be blown out of existence into this black hole of antimatter? My brothers became Time Lords, but I was abandoned and forgotten!" Omega wasn't buying it and I could tell his temper was rising.

"No, not forgotten. All my life I've known of you and honored you as our greatest hero. "So he went down in history on Gallifrey and was taught in the Academy. I supposed that was at least something. Not to Omega however he wanted more.

"A hero? I should have been a god!" I scoffed quietly at his arrogance. To hazard a cliché and to quote one of my favorite characters of the_ Avengers_ I thought of the line "There's only one God ma'am, and He doesn't dress like_ that_." As Captain America had stated. Even with that aside, you could tell that this guy would make a terrible God as mad for power as he was. He did nothing out of duty but out of desperation to be worshipped and that will make even the noblest of actions turn sour.

"Doctor, how is all this possible? This antimatter universe?" I interrupted, trying to grasp the situation better in my limited human understanding.

"Well, theoretically, of course, all this is quite impossible." The Doctor turned aside from the mad man and answered my question honestly.

"Here, Doctor, child, everything is possible. Be seated." He waved an arm and two ornate golden seats appeared. I felt a bit nervous and wanted to refuse but the Doctor was quite unperturbed.

"Thank you. Tell me, how did you manage to survive?" He asked something that I myself was wondering.

"How does anyone survive? Force of will. Mind, you might say, over antimatter." Omega revised the old trope in an effort to explain.

"And this organism thingy you sent to bring us here?" I asked him in a very untechnical way.

"Created from the raw stuff of matter. An organism that can exist in your world and mine. It brought you here and imbued you with its properties so that you too could exist in both worlds." I mentally smirked at his statement. Been there, done that. Already once had I been altered to fit into another reality without this guy's intervention. The Doctor glanced at me before hazarding his next question, probably thinking along the same lines.

"But how do we fit into this picture?" He asked what I knew he'd been trying to understand for a long time now.

"There are some things that even I cannot do, not alone, and at this point in my plans I need the help of a brother Time Lord. The young lady, however, is a wonderful, if unforeseen addition to my plans."

"I see." The Doctor responded flatly. I could tell that he felt as though this was all his fault, me being a part of Omega's plan. After all, Omega had just said he really had only been after him and that I was just a bonus but I didn't blame him at all. How could I? It certainly was not his fault. I gave him a look and gently shook my head to try and communicate that his guilt was misplaced but I could tell from the look in his eyes that my message was not being taken to heart.

"And it pleases me to use you against them." Omega tacked on and I bristled. Did he know about the Doctor's turbulent relationship with the Time Lords at this present time in his history?

"And if I give you my help, do you really think you can defeat the Time Lords? All of them? And what about Jessica, how does she fit into all of this?"

"But I am defeating them, Doctor. All of their power is insufficient to prevent the cosmic energy drain which I have caused. As for the human, I will explain how she can be of service as soon as you agree to assist me."

"And if I refuse to cooperate?" The Doctor boldly proclaimed though I could tell he was testing the waters to see just how far he could push Omega.

"Then you will face the wrath of Omega, you and those miserable humans who accompany you starting with this female here." He waved his hand again and the seat I was sitting in morphed. The arms suddenly placed metal bands around my wrists. I wasn't going anywhere and that, I believed, was the point. Omega had a bargaining chip with me sitting right there, a visible victim who he could taunt the Doctor with and there wasn't much he could do.

Three's eyes darkened at the threat and he stood up abruptly, his chair screeching as it was pushed away as he stood. He was angry to the point where I could tell he was about to go off. However a high pitched noise started over on the wall and Omega, feeling as though the Doctor got the point, directed his attention elsewhere and I was released as he nonchalantly went over to the communications device. I shot out of the chair like a rocket and ran straight to the Doctor, burying my face into his velvet coat in a hug. It was embarrassing but I needed the support right now; I was terrified of what he could do to me and I needed to feel safe. He returned my moment of weakness gently with one of his own and I could practically feel his eyes burning a hole in Omega's head as he gazed towards the crazed genius.

"Investigate immediately but do not harm them." I released my hold on the Doctor but he kept an arm wrapped protectively around my shoulder as we both faced Omega.

"Them?" I asked in a quavering voice. Omega looked at us both in what I could only guess was triumph or intensive curiosity as the mask he wore obstructed any view of his face.

"Well, Doctor, it seems that we have more company." He told the other Time Lord.

"You still have yet to tell me what it is you require of us. Or more to the point, how Jessie is involved in this matter at all." The Doctor responded, trying to hide his worry at just who it might be.

"I shall tell you in a moment after we have dealt with these intruders." Omega said. "And did you not say that the female was identified as 'Jessica'?"

"Jessie's a nickname for my full name." I blurted out. I have a nervous habit of doing that and right then I was more than just nervous. I was terrified.

"I know the concept child. But really, Doctor, have you become so attached to your pets, this lesser species? Do they truly mean so much to you?"

"Pet?!" I nearly growled at him. Three squeezed my shoulder warningly and changed the subject.

"Look, if you cannot reverse the energy drain, the fabric of the entire universe could be torn apart. "

"What if it is? It will make an interesting spectacle." Omega had no remorse, no second guesses. He said this very matter-of-factly.

"Then you'd be stuck out here, alone forever." I told him with hostility.

"Jessie." The Doctor hissed in my ear to try and keep me from drawing any more attention to myself, no doubt wary of Omega's threat.

"I am used to solitude. And I shall have had my revenge. I shall be satisfied." He told us both with utter confidence.

"Omega, if you would undo the harm that you've done and resume your place on the High Council, you could have the freedom to do anything that you wished." He offered and I gaped at him. He wanted this nut case to help run Gallifrey? One of the most powerfully planets in the universe?

"Power is the only freedom that I seek." We heard footsteps and turned to look as both Colonel Benton and Two were shuffled in. I was never so glad or so mortified to see someone in my entire life. Two spared me a glance and frowned when he noticed I was huddled against his other self for protection. Benton on the other hand looked just concerned with absolute confusion written all over his face.

"Absolute power is absolute freedom. No bargains." Omega finished his previous thought. Benton pointed towards the third Doctor and got a kick in the shin for his efforts. Two was trying to keep Omega from knowing who he was. "Especially not with those who betrayed and deserted me. No, Doctor, you are here for a reason. Who are you?" The question was asked of the two new prisoners.

"Oh, just some more innocent bystanders. Probably scooped up by that bungling organism of yours. Send them back, Omega. They can do you no harm." Three tried to cover for them. It was partially true. Benton was completely innocent in this whole thing, caught up in it only because he wore that UNIT uniform.

"The organism was programmed to seek out a Time Lord."

"And it has done so." Three indicated himself.

"Can this or this also be a Time Lord?" He seemed to believe that Benton was the other Time Lord and Two felt insulted or the need to intervene. Quite possibly both…

"Appearances aren't everything, you know. " He bit harshly at him.

" Ah, you do not fear me. Can it be? Two Time Lords? Ha! The same Time Lord! The High Council must be desperate indeed to transgress the laws of time." Omega recognized the other Doctor after a moment. I felt my heart speed up in desperation. Two seemed to feel similar to that as well because he instantly denied it.  
"I really think you're making a mistake, you know." He told Omega.

"You have tried to trick me." Omega decided.

"I was out for a stroll with my friend here when this horrible great jelly—" Two was cut off by Omega.

"I might have known the High Council would make some such pathetic attempt to deceive me."

"Now Omega—"Three started.

"Be silent! While I consider what shall be your fate." Something like thunder accentuated his words and my stomach churned.

"Is it really him?" Two asked of Three in a whisper.

"I'm afraid so." Three responded.

"What happened to Jessie? She looks terrified. I haven't seen her this upset for a while now." I scowled. Obviously they thought I couldn't hear them and were whispering about me because of that but I wasn't deaf! Before I could voice this thought Omega turned back to us.

"You have angered me. You are facing death! Take them away!" He told the Gels. I gulped and my face drained of color but Benton took it in stride. Two and Three looked grim but complied. I felt rooted to the spot as Three went on ahead after Benton, obviously expecting me to follow. Two gently steered me in the right direction and I leaned in a bit to his touch. Three turned around when he saw I wasn't following and scowled at his past incarnation as he saw that I was now leaning into him for support but he kept walking until we were deposited in the cell where Jo and Tyler were being held. As we were shoved in the doors to the place disappeared and Jo ran up to her Doctor and hugged him while Tyler grasped his hand in greeting. After getting reacquainted with the others Three and Two started to hash it out once again while I stood beside Two, listening to them bicker.

"I tell you, I practically had him won over then you turned up and he started treating me like an imposter." Three asserted.

"Well, you are really, aren't you. You can't even look after Jessica properly." That was a bit of a low blow, even I'd admit that.

"Doctor." I said softly and they both looked at me. When Three saw I was addressing Two his temper flared up.

"What do you mean?" He demanded of Two.

"Well, I suppose in another way we both are. Imposters I mean. Or is it neither of us?" Two tried reasoning as he saw my disapproving look at his harsh words. Three had enough time dealing with the regeneration and being an outcast. He didn't have to remind him that he felt like he was only a shadow of his former self.

"Stop twittering on." Three demanded.

"There's no need to be offensive!"

"Enough!" I yelled and they both jumped slightly at the tone in my voice. "I don't care how much you dislike these incarnations. The two of you are supposed to be helping each other and right now the only way we're going to get out of here is if you do just that. You're the Doctor and you're incredibly clever, both of you. Stop squabbling with each other and find us a way out of here." After a moment I realized that that had probably sounded very rude so I tacked on a please for good measure. They apologized to each other after a moment of silence and started to discuss Omega.

"Frankly, I thought he was somewhat confused." Three said. "You see one minute he's talking about destroying everything."

"Yes." Two agreed.

"The next minute he's talking about freedom."

" Look if this is a world of antimatter, how can it all exist?" Tyler interrupted.

"Singularity." Three informed him. Jo got confused and asked for the explanation in layman's terms.

"Well, singularity is a point in space time which can exist only inside a black hole. We are in a black hole, in a world of antimatter very close to this point of singularity, where all the known physical laws cease to exist. Now, Omega has got control of singularity and has learned to use the vast forces locked up inside the black hole. " Two explained.

"Now, that is how Omega is able to create the world we are now living in by a fantastic effort of his will, but unfortunately he thinks he's been wronged by the Time Lords." Three finished filling in the other Doctor.

"Time Lords?" Tyler was completely confused. I wanted to explain it to him, but I sincerely doubted we had the time, Time Lords with us or not.

"And now he's bent on revenge." I told Two who looked disturbed by the concept and with good cause. This guy was insanely powerful and he wanted to get revenge on his entire race.

"Well, you'll just have to stop him, won't you." Jo stated simply.

"Er… It's not quite that simple Jo. This guy is insanely powerful. One wrong step and we're dead. In fact, it looks that way anyway." I replied glumly. Sure the Doctor wouldn't die here, and not Jo either. But Benton and Tyler and I? As far as I knew, we were fair game. Especially me. I wasn't insured at all like those from the show. But then again, this was reality. Time could be rewritten. I knew when the Doctor was supposed to die but his companions…None of their deaths were fixed points. Anxiety spiked in my chest for the Jo at that thought.

"Well, who is this Omega, anyway?" Benton asked. The Doctors filled him in on the fact that he had perfected time travel and how that it was due to his imprisonment that it was now able to be attained.

" Even so, you can't let him smash everything up. Well, look, he's not all-powerful, you know, or else why did he need to bring you here?" Jo questioned.

"You've gotta admit he worked pretty hard to get you here Doctor." I agreed with her reasoning.

"Yes, that's true." Three relented.

"There must be something you can do to get us out of here?" Benton asked of them.

Jo suggested the screwdriver but the Doctor turned it down saying that only Omega's will controlled things here.

"Omega's will. Look, if Omega can will up an entire world, well surely you two could will up a small door. Well look, you're a Time Lord, aren't you?" Jo suggested. The two Doctors seemed to like the idea and gave it a go. Jo was right, together they were more powerful.

" It's worth a try." Two said. They got to work and after a few moments of intense concentration a door to the cell appeared.

"Well done." Three complimented his other self.

"I couldn't possibly have done it without you. Well, what next?" Two asked.

"Now for the singularity chamber. That's the key to it all." Three decided and the two of them started off.

"Jo, Jessie, wait here." The Doctor instructed. I rolled my eyes and immediately shot after them after giving Jo a quick smile. I wasn't going to let them just ditch me. Somebody needed to keep them out of trouble and focused. I didn't think they were done arguing. Not by a long shot.

We came to the throne room again. I was sticking to the shadows so they wouldn't catch me and force me to go back. If anything went wrong, I wanted to have their backs.

"Well, shall we?" Two asked.

"The bull by the horns, eh?" His other self responded with a dark humor.

"All right."

"After you." Three insisted.

"Let's toss, shall we?" Two asked and flipped the same coin as before in the air but Three caught it.

"What would be the point?" He asked quite sensibly. They were, after all, the same person. They crept past the throne room to the next room and I followed. Inside was what looked like a raised round well with steps leading up to it. It was red and a fine mist flowed out of it.

"Singularity." Three muttered to Two.

"Fascinating." Two acquiesced. Then things got bad as Omega came back into the room.

"What! How is it that you two are free?" Omega demanded to know.

" By combining our wills against yours." Three informed him with great pride.

"Together we were able to break down your barriers, so you're not all powerful after all, Omega." Taunted Two.

"If you free us, we'll plead your cause to the Time Lords. Otherwise we shall combine our wills to destroy you." Three warned him and I hoped he would be able to make good on his threat and that this wasn't a bluff because I knew for sure that if it was, we were all dead.  
"You dare threaten to destroy me? You wish to fight the will of Omega?" He roared.

"Yes, if I must." Three wasn't intimidated.  
"Then you shall, but you will fight the dark side of my mind. The dark side of my mind." Omega said with finality and what was probably an epic internally struggle commenced. On the outside however, it was just strange to see. The third Doctor had his eyes squeezed shut and was focusing very, very hard while Omega unblinkingly stared in his direction through that mask. As the time wore on it looked like the Doctor was starting to lose.

"Those who oppose the will of Omega shall not live! Destroy him!" I heard Omega shout and I couldn't stop myself. I sprinted into the room and barreled into Omega, trying to put him off balance and lose his concentration. He stumbled, Three came out of his trance, and Omega turned his glare to me.

"How dare you interfere you miserable little human?! You shall pay for your interference with your life!" Omega turned his concentration towards me and I slipped into a painful darkness as I heard Two yelling my name and Three pleading with Omega to stop. All I could feel was the throbbing pain as it looked like my mind was about to be shattered from the inside out. Whatever plans Omega had had for me meant nothing now. I was going to die from a broken mind and there was nothing I could do to stop it.


	9. Questions of Worth

The pain was immense and not only did I have a migraine, I also felt like someone was throttling me.

"No, Omega! Destroy her and you'll destroy your only chance of freedom. We won't help you if you harm her!" Two yelled and I heard him as if hearing through a tunnel. His voice set off a tinny echo. But the pain eventually stopped and the pressure in my head stopped pulsing and fell to a dull throbbing. My throat was released and I sucked in a great big gasp of air.

"Be warned. You have seen my power. You and your friends will learn that it is useless to defy me. Do you understand girl? You and all the other humans can do nothing." Three gently helped me sit up whilst inspecting me for damage as Two creased his brow in concern.

"But the others do not defy you!" He reminded Omega.

"Oh, yes. They too are trying to escape. However it is of no consequence. They will be no more effective than their Telurian counterpart here." Omega said smugly.

"All this exists because you have willed singularity to create it all for you." Three tried to understand further what exactly was going on here.

"Exactly." Omega confirmed.

"I say, you mean all you've got to do is think of a thing, rub your magic lamp over there and shally me gally me zoop, there it is? That's jolly clever. That's jolly clever." Two said while rubbing his hands together joyously. I gave a small smile at his childish countenance and glee but it quickly turned to a grimace as the throbbing in my head gave off a particularly painful aftershock spike. Two noticed it but didn't say anything other than giving me a small look of concern.

"Are you sure that you and he are of the same intelligence?" Omega asked Three after a beat and even I had to hide a laugh at that, just seeing the look on Two's face. My laugh came out as a wheeze however and Three helped me up to my feet and directed me to stand behind both of him while he faced Omega.

"You couldn't run me up a quick recorder, could you? It's a little thing about this long with holes in. I've lost mine, you see." Two went on undeterred. I understood that he loved his recorder almost as much as his screwdriver but I had to wonder if this was really the time. His other self seemed to echo my sentiments because of the deadly glare he gave him.

"I will tell you of the task that lies before you." Omega ignored him and went on.

"It's not much to ask, a small recorder!" Two insisted.

"Silence!" Omega demanded.

"Please, ignore him. Just ignore him. He's incorrigibly frivolous." Three tried to distract Omega from Two's insistent demands.

"Just because you're not musical!" Two seemed outraged.

"Please! Will you stop interrupting? Continue." Three ordered.

"Continue?" Thunder exploded in the background and the entire singularity room wobbled. I felt my legs quake and held onto the second Doctor for support in order to keep from following over. I also sent him a panicked look. What was he doing?! He squeezed my shoulder in reassurance that he indeed had a plan. "While you play stupid childish games? You face annihilation, do you know that? You, your entire race, your precious terrestrials, everything, and what do you do? Huh? You wrangle and babble of pipes!"

"It's not a pipe!" Two countered and he sounded downright offended. Three pulled both Two and myself aside.

"Just what do you think you are trying to do?! Are you trying to get us and Jessica killed?!" Three hissed at his other self and indicated my still pale form.

"Testing the limits of his self control. They're not very good, are they. " Two said to his other self.

" No. No, they're not, but it'll be dangerous if you push him too far." Three reminded him with a pointed look at me.

"That's just something that you'll have to risk, isn't it Doctor?" I asked him, my eyes daring him to disagree with me.

" What are you saying? Do you plot against me?" Omega demanded and we turned to him abruptly.

"No, no. I was just explaining to my associate here that he should show you more respect, for all our sakes." The third Doctor quickly covered.

" I am thoroughly repentant. You mentioned some task. " The second Doctor reminded him and gave him a small bow.

"Yes. I created this world through the power of my will. I created the organisms which brought you here. This is the source of the light stream you travelled along, and I created it. I alone! Omega! And it is not enough. None of it is enough. I am still trapped. As trapped as I was the moment I arrived in this, this desolation. Huh. Ironic, is it not?" And there was the ego of "I am a god!" back again. This guy seriously could use an ego check.

"But surely, if you can transmit matter to Earth down that light stream, you could transmit yourself anywhere." The second Doctor tried.

"Yes, so I imagined, but no, there was no way out. No escape."

"If you're all powerful then why is that?" I asked. The Doctor glared at me, both of them, but Omega seemed like he could care less about my taunting at this point. It appears that he was content to explain to the Doctors and ignore me.

"So long as I control singularity, I can make it do my will. All these things exist because I will them to exist. Without me and the unceasing pressure of my will, the work of thousands of years would collapse into chaos in microseconds. I am, if you like, the Atlas of my world." He used an earth myth to help us understand better and as much as I hated to admit it, it actually made things easier.  
"So, the moment you abandon control, you cannot escape, and you cannot escape without abandoning control." Three summed up the issue quite adequately.

"Exactly. I am a prisoner of my own power, my own creation. Or rather, I was, until now. And that is your task. To take over my burden so that I may escape. And you will do this or I will be forced to take drastic measures." Both Doctors shared a look and discussed the matter quietly.

"I say we give him what he wants until we can come up with a more thorough plan." Three said and Two agreed.

"Precisely what I was thinking." Two agreed.

"You can't be serious; you're going to help this guy?!" I demanded to know.  
"Just for the moment Jessie, and please for your own sake stop irritating Omega! I have no desire to see you hurt." Three told me sternly and I wanted to protest that I was only bringing the jerk down a peg because he deserved it but the look in his eyes stopped me. He was genuinely worried for my safety and he had enough on his plate already.

"Alright." I said after a moment.

"Well? Your answer?" Omega demanded.

"We will obey you, Omega." Three told him.

" We have no choice." Two stated reluctantly.

"Then you help me make my preparations. You must first remove this mask. Now you, too, will need such masks. The light stream has a slow, corrosive effect, due to the acceleration of the particles, but you are in no immediate danger. The process takes time. Come, the mask. " Omega beckoned them over and the Doctors obeyed, going to remove the gladiatorial mask that covered his entire face and kept him from view. Slowly they lifted it off of him but after a quick look instantly put it back down. What was so disturbing about him that they'd almost recoiled in horror at the sight of his face?

"What is it? Why do you not obey me? Take off the mask." They made no move to obey and I was severely confused and more than a bit concerned. "What are you doing? I am in haste to be gone!"

"We, we cannot remove the mask, Omega, because-" Two stammered, unable to finish because of what he's just seen.

"Because beneath that mask there is nothing left of you. The corrosion has already done its work." Three finished for his other self and I wonder what that all entails. What it means.

"What?" Omega roared and rushed to a mirror. He ripped off the mask and I gasped...There was nothing. There was nothing but empty air there. How is was that possible?

"You exist only because your will insists that you exist. Your will is all that is left of you." Three explained my unanswered question. Omega put the mask back on but doubled over as if in physical pain and started howling like a dying dog.

"It is not true. I am Omega, creator of this world! And I can also destroy! Therefore I must exist!" He tried to reason out and deny what he had just seen.

"But don't you see? You can only exist here!" Three told him and stamped his foot to emphasize the point that this ground is the only place in which he could survive.

" If I exist only by my will, then my will is to destroy, and all things shall be destroyed! All things! All things!" He continued to howl and there was a great rumbling as the room quaked and the ground shook. Two grabbed my hand and ran out the door with Three trailing behind us as we made our escape from Omega and his major temper tantrum.

"Told you that you'd have to risk it. I was right. Now he's off balance." I said. The Doctors ignored me and instead kept running. We skidded to a stop where we had parked Bessie.

"Okay, Bessie was right here. I know she was." I moaned as the palace continued to quake under Omega's wrath.

"The tracks are leading that way." Two pointed and when I looked down I saw that Bessie had indeed been there, just driven off in another direction.

"That's Jo and Benton." Three declared.

"They'll be making for UNIT Headquarters." Two informed us.

"Wait, what?" I asked. How did those get here? Before he could answer there was a loud bang and I yelped. It appeared that the Gels had not only caught up with us but were shooting at us, this time with no orders to capture but to kill.

"Come on! Let's get a move on." This time Three possessively yanked on my hand and pulled me along. Somehow, I felt as though I was in a human tug-of-war with these two incarnations and I wondered if they would ever stop acting so childish when it came to each other.

After an insane amount of running and ducking,and with my lungs wanting to burst, we finally made it to UNIT HQ but there was a huge problem.

"The doors are locked!" I yelled as I tugged on the entrance double door.

"Let us in!" Two yelled and banged on the door with me as Three called for Jo to "Open the door this instant unless you wish for us to be incinerated!" Suddenly the door was pulled open and I stumbled as I fell in. The Doctors fell in after me and everybody started talking over each other in trying to understand what was going on or give directions.

"TARDIS,everybody! Into the TARDIS, quickly!" Two shouted over everybody's questions. We ran to the TARDIS but not everyone thought it was a great idea to get in there.

"But we can't all get in there!" Tyler protested but was shoved inside by Benton and Two. Jo and I followed after but the Brigadier stood gaping at the two Doctors, never really believing until now that there was two of them in the same place.

"Come on, inside. Come on, Brigadier. Inside, inside!" Three herded him in and we shut the doors just in time to keep out the Gels and activated the TARDIS' defenses.

" Well, there you are, then. They can't get in." Three told us and I felt some comfort.

"And we can't get out." Two pessimistically threw out into the open.

"We're besieged." Three agreed grimly.

"Lovely." I muttered.

"If only I could find my recorder, I could play you a little something to pass the time." Two bemoaned his lack of instruments.

"We must be thankful for small mercies." Stated the Brigadier and I tried not to laugh at poor Two as he glared at him.

" Well, this TARDIS of yours is a real marvel, Doctor. I still don't understand how we all got inside it, but I don't wish to spend the rest of my life in it." Tyler told the Doctor. I heard her hum in offense and stroked her gently.  
"He didn't mean it in a bad way." I murmured to her. Two smiled at my interaction with the TARDIS and so did Three while the others gave me a look that suggested they thought the Doctor's "eccentricity" had rubbed off on me.

"True. We can't just stay here forever." Jo said.

"Come on, Doc. I mean, with two of you there should be twice as many ideas. Well surely you can think up something to nobble this Omega bloke? " Benton insisted and I was once again reminded of why I liked him. His unwavering faith in the Doctor made him quite a wonderful man to see on the screen and see interacting with the Doctor.

" Nobble him? You're talking about one of the most powerful blokes in the cosmos. Nobble him? " Two asked as though it was a completely impossible and preposterous idea.

"Well, I. Excuse me. Someone's trying to get through to us." Three said as an alarm started to go off.

"You don't think?" Two pointed up and I had to wonder if he whether he meant God or the Time Lords. Not that they were at all the same but it was hard to tell with a gesture like that (A/N Seriously, I have no idea what he meant by that gesture but the Doctor already spoke about heaven earlier in the episode so I'm going to say I'm right. If you've seen this and know for sure what he was doing, don't be hesitant to correct me. I want to be a well-informed author).

"I hardly think so." Three chuckled and I felt as though he meant the first with a reaction like that. Suddenly the scanner lit up and One was on it. I felt a small rush of happiness at seeing the First Doctor again.

"There you are, then. What's all this, a mass meeting?" One asked indicating the large group of humans crowded in his Console Room.

" Well, we had to bring them all in here. It wasn't safe outside." Three defended. "And we could hardly leave Jessie out there to get into more trouble, now could we?" Three smiled fondly at me and I crossed my arms and gave him a small glare. One smiled at me with a twinkle in his eye and a chuckle, as though he too knew all about my "mischievousness".

"In a pretty pickle, aren't you. Yes, trapped in your own TARDIS!" He clucked at his other two selves.

"You're trapped in your own bubble. You can talk." Two harumphed.

"Unfortunately, talk's all I can do, and not much of that. The transference isn't stable. Let's get on with it, eh?"

" On with what?" I asked the first Doctor.

"Putting our heads together and finding a solution. Ready?" He asked of his counterparts. That's exactly what they did as they held a telepathic conference for the next few moments.

"We're all agreed, then. Risky, but it could work. I'll report back. Do take care of yourselves and your companions. I would regret for this to turn out poorly for Jessica so early in her timeline." Then One disappeared from the scanner.

"We'd have to strip down the force field." Three told his other self.

"But that'd mean leaving the TARDIS defenceless." He countered. The third Doctor didn't look happy about it either.

"Yes, I know, but I think we'll have to risk it." They got to work doing… Something underneath the console.

" What was all that about, Miss Grant? Miss Smith?" Brigadier asked us.

"Another telepathic conference, I think." Jo informed him and I nodded. The Brigadier lost color in a humorous way.

"That old chap?" He asked, putting two and two (or should I say three and three) together.

"Yup." I responded, popping the p.

"Three of them. I didn't know when I was well off. Doctor!"

"Yes, what is it?" Three responded to the call impatient of the Brigadier's questions.

"Would you mind telling us laymen what you scientists are getting so excited about?" He sarcastically requested. If there was something you could always count on in any situation it was the Brig's ability to one up the Doctor in sass and it was quite enjoyable to hear.

"We think we've found a way of dealing with Omega." He told him.

"How do we know that he'll take the generator? What if he should refuse?" Three asked after he shooed off a curious Doctor Tyler as well.

"Ah, I've found it." Two declared happily. I smiled at his childish glee.

"Found what?" Three asked of himself.

"My recorder. It must have been there all the time. Right in the corner of the force field." He pointed to it proudly.

"Well, don't touch it." Three said and I could tell something had just clicked in his mind.

"I wasn't going to."

"Don't you understand? It's exactly what we want. Far better than the force field generator." He explained and Two's face fell.

" Oh no, not my recorder!"

"It's alright Doctor. I'll get you a new one. I promise." I told him and he went from glaring at his other self to sighing in resignation. Three gave me a small smile of gratitude and they set about finishing up their project.

"Here we are, then. This should do the trick."

"What is it?" I wanted to know.

" It is a kind of portable force field and just what we need to bargain with Omega." Three declared triumphantly.

"The key to which, unfortunately, is my recorder." Two said glumly.

" Yes. Right, ready?" Three asked Two impatiently.

" Here, if you'd just hold this." Two gave the box/portable force field to Tyler and they went and called Omega using the scanner. What possessed them I didn't understand whatsoever.

"Omega, we want to talk with you." Three said.

"I hear you, brother Time Lords." Omega responded imperiously.

"We think we have discovered a way to give you back your freedom. Will you now free the TARDIS so that we can come to you?" Three requested and my jaw dropped.

"What?!" I hissed at him but he shushed me with a wave of his hand.

"Is this some deceit? You cannot escape my world unless I will it."

"No, not a bit of it, old chap. We just want to avoid a long, tiring walk, that's all." Two assured him and I still felt completely out of the loop. However I would stick with what I knew was best. Trusting the Doctor in situations like this.

" Very well. Come to me you shall!" And the screen went dark leaving the rest of us humans completely confused and slightly fearful.

"Right. Now listen to me, everybody. From now on you are to do exactly as you are told." Three ordered us.

"Why? What's going to happen?" Jo questioned before I could.

"Now, Jo, Jessie, please do as I ask. Do exactly as I tell you. Do you promise?" He looked to Jo who agreed after a moment and then turned to me. I sighed but nodded my head slowly.

"As long as you don't do anything stupid." He grinned wryly at that but took that as my agreement to abide by what he said.

"Good. Are you ready? Stand by. Here we go." Tyler gave Two the device back and we dematerialized in order to land in Omega's throne room.

"Do you think this trickery will save you for long?" Omega asked the third Doctor as he led the way out of the TARDIS.

"We have come to set you free." Three informed him. Omega wasn't buying it.

"What is this?"  
"On one condition." The third Doctor continued.

"I make the terms, Time Lords!"

"Omega, if you will send these people back to where they came from, we will stay and help you." Three finished and Benton had to restrain Jo from protesting while the Brigadier held onto me as I started to make my way over to him to tell him just how stupid I thought that this plan was. Time can be rewritten and what if it was rewritten so the Doctor got stuck here? What if my presence alone was able to change the fixed point that was his "death" and this could be the end of him right here and now?

"He knows what he's doing Miss Smith." He whispered in my ear and I stilled myself after a moment. It wouldn't help to fight against Alistair. I'd have to wait until I could talk to the stupid Time Lord himself.

"We think we have devised a way of restoring your freedom to you." Two tried to bargain with Omega.

" What way? I know now that you cannot give me my freedom, but you can keep me company in the endless empty years that lie ahead. If you will both stay here willingly and share my exile, then I will spare your friends and their universe." He indicated us and my heart sank. I knew exactly what the Doctor would do with that proposition. He'd accept it in a second flat. Anything to save his friends and the other world on top of it was an added incentive that he surely wouldn't ignore.  
"We shall give you that promise, Omega. We will not attempt to leave this world before you do." Three solemnly said. I shook my head vigorously as Jo protested verbally.

"You can't!" The third Doctor lost his patience.

"Jo! You promised!" He scolded her harshly.

"Go, then, back to your planet. Be gone, and give thanks that Omega is merciful." Omega said and I had to bite my tongue to keep back the retort I had, especially since it appeared that that last part was sent my way.

" Doctor, what shall we do?" The Brigadier asked as he left the Doctors to say their goodbyes to us.

"Brigadier, I want all of you to step through that column of smoke." Three instructed, indicating a well with smoke coming out of it.

"What?"

"Don't be alarmed. It won't harm you. On the contrary, it will take you back home." Three clarified.

"Please, Brigadier, it's the only way." Two pleaded, but he looked at me when he said that and I knew that he was asking more than one person. Tough. I wasn't going to just leave him here with this mad man.

"Well, I don't know what you're up to, but all right. Now, Mister Ollis?" He asked of the strange man that had joined the group somehow. I was still a bit fuzzy on those details.

"Not me. I'm not going in there." He said stubbornly. Instead Doctor Tyler went through first after being assured of its safety and then the man followed, albeit slightly reluctantly.

"Sergeant Benton." Brigadier ordered and Benton went up to the well only to turn back at the last moment.

"I'd sooner Miss Grant or Miss Smith." He said, always the gentleman and I remembered vaguely somewhere that I read he had a crush on Jo. Poor guy was going to get his heart ripped out like the Doctor.

"Move, Benton." Was all the Brig had to say and Benton followed his commanding officer's orders.

"Now then, Miss Grant." Jo looked hesitantly form the well to the Doctor.

"No! No, I want to stay with the Doctor." She went over and clutched Three just as I knew I would with one of them when it came to be my turn.  
"Jo, please." Three said softly.

"Come on, Jo." The Brigadier extended his hand to her. She looked from it to the Doctor.

"Trust me." The third Doctor asked of her. She slowly took the Brigadier's hand, walked up to the smoke, and took one look back.

"You'll be alright." And with that she walked through it.

"I certainly didn't forget you Miss Smith." The Brigadier turned to me next.

"No." I flat out refused.

"Jessie." Three tiredly said my name.

"No Doctor. I'm not leaving either of you to spend the rest of your lives with a mad man alone. No way."

"Jessie, you promised-"

"This counts as stupid Doctor!"  
"Do as you are told!" He all but shouted at me and I was jarred. He had never raised his voice at me like that and for a moment it was like staring down the Dalek from Van Statten's all over again. I turned to Two who regarded me with soft eyes but a firmness lied within them.

"Don't make me go." I begged him.

"It's for the best Jessie. You wouldn't be able to help us much anyway." And with that my heart broke. Did he really see me as that useless.

"Fine." I whispered and walked up to the smoke. With a tearful look back, I stepped through, my heart pounding and my internal voice calling me a coward to abandon the Doctor like that. I tried to ignore it but it didn't work.

As I stepped through there was a great rushing sound and suddenly my feet hit the ground hard and so did everyone else's. We were back in UNIT HQ but there was no Doctor to be seen.

"We're back!"Benton exclaimed.

"Well, we certainly seem to be." Tyler countered. Benton went and looked out the window.

"But we're really back." He assured us.

"But the Doctors." Jo brought them up and I felt more guilt come crashing in. How could I have been so selfish as to walk away from him when he needed me? Or was he right? Was I more of a burden than a help? I thought of all the deaths I had yet to stop, all the times that Omega used me to keep the Doctor in line. Was I nothing but a recurring burden in the Doctor's timeline?

"Oh, I dare say they'll turn up as usual." The Brigadier said but neither Jo and I were sure. She sobbed into Benton and I tried to fight back more tears. I wasn't an infant. I didn't need to keep crying…

"Wonderful chap, both of him." Brigadier ruminated. Suddenly I heard the wonderful sound of the TARDIS reappearing and I felt a prick of hope rise up.

"The TARDIS!" Jo exclaimed and the door opened.

"I told you he had no self-control, didn't I?" He gloated and I had never felt so happy to see someone yet such an urge to smack them.

"Doctor!" Jo called.

"How did you manage it?" Tyler asked, amazed at them being here.

"By the skin of our teeth." Two responded.

"Splendid." Tyler was as glad as all of us to see them. They then went into discussing where had vanished off to (his original spot Three presumed) and explaining what had occurred with Omega.

"So there you are. Omega's will was like the tension in the elastic. Once that will was broken, all the bits of Earth, UNIT etc just snapped back right into their proper place." Three explained.

"But how come you turned up in the TARDIS?" Benton questioned sensibly.  
"Because that was the proper place for us." Two reasoned and it was hard to argue with that fact.

"What was all that business about the flute?"Jo asked.

"Well, as you know, it accidentally fell into the force field of the Tardis, so that when we were all transformed into antimatter, that was the only thing that wasn't processed." Two told us.

"And when Omega knocked it out of our hands and it fell out of the force field, all the atoms and the anti-atoms annihilated one another." Three smiled but it faltered when he saw my red face and hurt still lingering. It was stupid but I still was upset about him yelling at me like that, like I was one of the bad guys and then on top of it calling me useless. It was a bit hard for me to get past that part because he was right. I was useless. The only thing I'd managed to do so far was bungle everything I touched.

"So, big bang, and the black hole becomes a supernova!" Tyler understood and his attention was drawn elsewhere by him.

"Exactly." He affirmed.

"Pity, though. I think it had a lovely tone." Two added remorsefully but before anyone could respond we heard One once again on the monitor inside the TARDIS.

"Everything okay?" He inquired of us.

"Well, here we are, back safe and sound." Three told him and indicated each of us.

"Quite a party." Quipped Two.

" Yes, well, the party's over now. You young men and I go back to our time zones. Though considering the way things have been going, well, I shudder to think what you'll do without me." And then One was gone. Suddenly my stomach lurched and I felt fluttery and light headed.

"Oh great." I grumbled. The usual headache started to build.

"Goodbye. Well, goodbye, everybody. Goodbye. It's been so nice to meet me." Two told us and smiled his great big smile.

"Yes, I see what you mean. I hope I don't meet me again." Three jested and Two rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

"Ah. I shall have to settle for Jessie then." And then he was gone. I moaned softly clutched my stomach after closing my eyes against the building pressure in my head. It hurt all over.

"Jessie?" Three asked me softly. "Are you alright?"

"What do you care? I'm of no use to you anyways, remember?" I spat out in my pain and he jolted back as if I had physically hit him. I instantly regretted what I'd said but it was too late because I was already making my next jump.

* * *

When the vertigo stopped, I realized that I was awake this where I was was a mystery. It was a dark basement looking place, with bits of metal and bins scattered all around in the dark cement-brick tunnels. I heard talking and staggered over to it.  
" But I've not been idle, Rose, tucked away underneath this hospital. I've been listening. The Sisters are hiding something." Oh no, not this episode. It was disgusting; everything about it, from the diseases the patients were given to the way they were treated to Cassandra taking over Rose. It was wonderfully written but a mess to live.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked of Cassandra and I knew my time was running out. I was not going to be useless or too late this time.

"Oh these cats have secrets. Hush, let me whisper. Come close." I was almost there...

"You must be joking if you think I'm coming anywhere near you." Rose took a step back but I had reached her just in time.

"Rose move!" I yelled and pushed her out of the way. Beams of energy shot out of the walls and pinned me in place.

"Jessica?! What-"

"And who are you?" Cassandra demanded as I struggled to get out but I couldn't. Rose was looking back and forth from me to Cassandra, desperately wanting to help but not knowing how.

"My name is Jessica Smith and I know that the Doctor would kill you if you touched Rose. Leave her alone." I growled at her. Well, more like it as she was nothing but a flat piece of skin.

"Jessica what do you think you're doing?!" Rose asked me.

"Not being useless."

"The Doctor? He's here?" Cassandra actually seemed afraid. "And you know him?"

"He's known her for centuries so you'd better let her go! Now Cassandra, let her go!" Rose demanded.

"Chip, activate the psychograft." Cassandra ordered. My heart pounded but I kept a cool countenance.

"What are you doing Cassandra, let her go!" Rose started over to Cassandra physically intervene but a barrier appeared that kept her from being able to reach either Chip or Cassandra.

"Security feature darling. Don't want any surprise guests getting the better of me. As for what I'm doing, I'm getting some good old fashioned revenge. I would have loved to have used you but since this _dear_ friend of yours and the Doctor was so eager to volunteer… The lady is moving on. It's goodbye trampoline and hello little Miss Green Eyes over here." With that a beam shot out of the ceiling and came down towards me and it was like Omega all over again, except this time I was being tucked away into my own subconscious, made to watch events as they unfolded through a different perspective as another being took control of my body. Not at all a pleasant feeling. But I had saved Rose from this and that was something to hold onto. I was finally good for something


	10. New New Jessica

Being tucked away inside my own consciousness was like being tucked away inside the TARDIS. Quite literally actually. As Cassandra pushed me further and further back I realized that the inside of my mind resembled the TARDIS from the early days of the show, specifically Two's. Confused as to how the heck that I happened, I was about to explore when I heard footsteps.

Thinking it was Cassandra (who else would be inside my mind?) I went to try and find a weapon to metaphysically beat her out of the deeper parts of my mind when out of the doors leading farther into recesses of the hallways (the visual representation of what I knew to be the different aspects of my brain) stepped the TARDIS. Well, in the form of Idris anyways.

"Well, I must say that you've gotten yourself into a pickle, haven't you my dear Sentinel?" She said as she cocked her head to the side and examined me. "Our Thief is so going to worry."

"T-TARDIS?" I stuttered, unsure of what else to say. How was she able to speak to me?

"Is it so hard to see it's me? I chose this form specifically because this is how you see me. Well, sort of anyway." She wasn't the unkempt madwoman that the Doctor ran into, but an elegant lady in a gleaming gold dress and metallic golden heels. Even her eyeshadow and lips were tinted a golden hue to match the color of artron energy.

"How—"I started but couldn't continue. She smiled warmly at me.

"I could get into the specifics but in the words of the Doctor himself 'It's spacey-wacey.' Suffice it to say that I have always kept my eye on you, Sentinel, and we are as connected as you and the Doctor. Perhaps more so as I can speak to you but no matter how hard I try I can't get through to him…"

"I don't understand." I told the TARDIS frankly.

"Well, you did just jump from a parallel universe, and this is the second psychic attack you've been under in a matter of hours. Your mind has always been especially vulnerable due to your dual nature in belonging in multiple universes but it is your consciousness that called out to me. It is essentially bleeding you know. You just had to protect that pink and yellow girl, didn't you? You're so very much like him."

"If it wasn't me, it'd have been her. You almost sound like you prefer it that way." I responded, trying to assess what she meant by that comment on Rose.

"You misunderstand me. I harbor no ill will towards 'Rose' as you know her. As a matter of fact, I appreciate what she has done in healing our Thief. She's good for him. I just meant that the Doctor's nature is rubbing off on you to the point where you're tearing yourself apart and I cannot allow that to happen. Hence my being here. I've stepped in to strengthen your mental defenses against the intruder inhabiting your body." The TARDIS clarified for me.

"Look, TARDIS—"

"Sexy." She stopped me right there.

"What?"

"You and he call me 'Sexy'. That's my name." The TARDIS—Sexy told me.

"Alright, look Sexy, I—is that why my head looks like one of the old Console Rooms? Because you're here?"

"Not at all. This is home for you Jessica. You choose how the safe haven of your mind would look. It soothes you though, doesn't it? And then there are these wonderful round things. Do you know that not even I quite know what to make of them?"

"Alright, so this is where I'm hiding from Cassandra, right?" I tried to piece this together.

"Yes." Suddenly a cloister bell rang.

"Then why is there a cloister bell ringing? If this is supposed to be safe why is there a warning signal?"

"I told you that your very innermost being was bleeding. Cassandra is compressing you to death, mind and body. I'm here to ease the pain and keep her from accessing the very core of your being. I can't do much else I'm afraid. But perhaps this will help to ease your mind. Would you like to be able to see what Cassandra is doing?" I nodded vigorously at that, of course I wanted to know. Idris walked over to the Console and switched on the monitor so that I could see what was occurring in the first person perspective at least. I couldn't control myself but I could at least see what was going on. Cassandra was examining herself in the mirror (or me?).

"Look at me. From class to brass. Not much on here but the eyes worth salvaging." She bemoaned my looks and I tried not to feel too offended. "Although I suppose that the hair is something that can be a flattering feature if tamed." She ran a finger through my curly sandy brown hair and frowned in the mirror again.

"The mistress can make herself beautiful." Chip agreed and Rose stalked towards them, the barrier let down.

"Alright, first of all, where do you get off on judgin' her looks when it's not even your body? Second, get out of her. _Now_ Cassandra. Leave her alone." She demanded, rage evident in her features.  
"Or _what _Rose Tyler?"

"Or I'll—"Rose hesitated.

"Exactly. You can't do anything. This was meant to be you, you know. I wanted to use you against the Doctor but I seem to understand that you and he hold some affection towards this girl. That's fine. It just means that I have two bodies that I can play with in order to get what I want. And the best part is you won't do anything to stop me. I have the advantage you see. You can't hurt me, because if you do you hurt, Jessica was it? Or does she go by Jessie?" My heart clenched at the nickname and I tried to ignore the stabbing pain of rejection and the ferocity with which the Third Doctor had spoken to me with. Cassandra picked up on my distress.  
"Oh my, she doesn't like it when I use that pet name. What on New Earth did the Doctor do to rile her up so badly?"

"You mean she's hearin' all this?" Rose asked horror obvious on her face at the fact that I was lucid to this.

"Yes she is. How she's pulling it off, I'm not sure but you should see the things bouncing around in this skull Rose. Much more full than I'd ever have guessed. You came here with the Doctor didn't you? You just have to give me the name of his surgeon. I could stand for some substantial work done and he's got a whole new face and body."

"Alright, listen up—"Rose started in but then her phone went off. I knew who it was and cringed slightly, still not quite up to seeing him in any form. I had tried to spare Rose but in the end become a road block again. Cassandra was going to use me in any way she saw fit against Rose and the Doctor both and I was just sitting back and watching it all happen. Again.

"Jessica, can you hear me? It's the Doctor. Now I know you and he aren't exactly friends right now but he's going to be able to fix this." Rose told me and indicated her phone.

"You won't be telling him a thing." Cassandra hissed.

"And why should I listen to you?" Rose countered, about to pick up.

"Because if you do, I'll have no need for this body so I'll dispose of it and I'll leave it for yours." Rose hesitated as the phone continued. "I will destroy her inside and out if I can't use her. Either way, I get revenge on you and revenge on the Doctor. Centuries of acquaintance you said? Do you really want to be the one to cause that to end?" Rose appeared to be physically in distress and I hated that I'd put her in this position. I'd tried to help and it'd foolishly backfired. "Answer it but act normally or I will get rid of her." Cassandra demanded and as Rose picked up I knew that she was going to cave to Cassandra's orders. She was too compassionate and empathetic to risk anyone else's life when it depended on her and Cassandra was going to exploit that good nature for all it was worth. I yelled for her to ignore Cassandra's threats, but she obviously couldn't hear me.

"Hello?" She answered and her voice cracked a bit. Cassandra scowled (I could tell by the change in perception) and gestured for the phone to be put on speaker.

"Rose, where are you?" I heard Ten ask and my thoughts went back to where I had abandoned him since I last saw him: right in the heart of the Master's plans. Yet another way in which I'd screwed up.

"I—I got a bit turned around." She bit her lip nervously and responded, obviously trying to be casual but still upset by the predicament enough to have some issues in performing.

"Is everything alright?" The Doctor asked, catching on to her nervousness. Cassandra gave Rose a glare that told her that she'd better start convincing him or else.

"I was just a bit surprised. Jessica popped in again and it caught me off guard." That was true. She had no problem when she was able to tell the Doctor the truth flat out.

"Jessica's here?" The Doctor almost seemed nervous to speak to me. Did he remember from nearly four hundred years ago what he had done and said?

"Yeah." Rose responded confidently. There was a moment of silence.  
"Can I speak to her for a moment?" He asked.

"Um…" Rose seemed unsure of what to say.

"Give me that." Cassandra hissed in my voice and scooped the phone out of her hands. "How does she talk?"

"What?" Rose asked, taken aback by the question.

"What's she like? Where's she from?"

"America, twenty-first century." Chip supplied. How he knew that was a mystery that was never really solved.

"What's up Doctor?" Cassandra said and I was impressed by the fact she actually sounded like me for a moment.

"Jessica! It's good to hear from you." He seemed relieved in his response. "I thought you might still be upset with me."

"Right, about that thing that you did. It's whatever Doctor, we should totally move on." Cassandra tried again and this time I was less impressed and more bemused.

"Right, well, how about we chat in person? Can you and Rose find your way to Ward 26 where the Face of Boe is? You remember him right?"

"Course I do. That big old Boe Face." Cassandra responded. "We'll meet you there." She promised and hung up the phone. "We're going to Ward 26 to meet the Doctor. Don't try anything. I'll be watching you." She warned Rose.

"The Doctor is a very dangerous man." Chip was worried for Cassandra. "And your other body is gone. What if he should make you leave the Jessica child?"  
"He's dangerous and clever. I might need a mind like his. The Sisterhood is up to something. Remember that Old Earth saying, never trust a Nun? Never trust a Nurse. And never trust a cat. Perfume?" She got a vial from Chip and tucked it into my pocket. "And as for forced ejection, I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve. After you Rose." She gestured down the hallway and Rose gave her an angry glare but started to walk down the hall. I groaned.

"Oh quit complaining. You were the one who took her place." Cassandra reminded me.

* * *

We eventually made it to the ward and the Doctor beamed at us. Rose put on her best brave face and smiled back.

"There you both are. Come and look at this patient. Marconi's Disease. Should take years to recover. Two days. I've never seen anything like it. They've invented a cell washing cascade. It's amazing. Their medical science is way advanced. And this one." The Doctor led us from one patient to the next, explaining their diagnoses. "Pallidome Pancrosis. Kills you in ten minutes, and he's fine. I need to find a terminal. I've got to see how they do this. Because if they've got the best medicine in the world, then why is it such a secret? "

"It's completely crazy. I totally dig what you're saying." Cassandra had me agree and I cringed. That was not at all twenty-first century lingo. The Doctor sighed at me.

"No need to be sarcastic Jessica. I was just trying to help you understand." I felt hurt at the fact that he thought I would maliciously make fun of him like that.

"Anyways, can we move on to what you need then? What is it that you're looking for?" Rose asked quickly. Then frowned and mentioned a terminal. Cassandra was quick to lead the way.  
"Nope, nothing odd. Surgery, post-op, nano-dentistry. No sign of a shop. They should have a shop." Ten whined as he looked through the data. He noticed how far Rose was standing from my body and the way I was carrying myself and I could see that he felt that something was up.

"No, it's missing something else. When I was downstairs, those Nurse Cat Nuns were talking about Intensive Care. Where is it?" Cassandra brought up. The Doctor raised an eyebrow and searched a bit deeper.  
"You're right. Well done." He assented.

"Why would they hide a whole department? It's got to be there somewhere. Search the sub-frame." Cassandra ordered.

"What if the sub-frame's locked?"

"Try the installation protocol." My voice came back and it sounded full of exasperation.  
"Yeah. Of course. Sorry. Hold on there Jessie." I flinched and so did Cassandra when he called me that and the Doctor noted it sadly. He used his sonic on the interface and the whole wall slid open. I recoiled in preparation of what I was about to see.

"Intensive Care. Certainly looks intensive." Rose quipped in fake cheer as the entrance was revealed. We descended a set of stairs and entered a huge room with glowing green cells. The Doctor opened one at random and Rose gaped in horror while I tried to push back the urge to get sick mentally while Cassandra was completely unaffected.

"That's disgusting. What's wrong with him?" She asked the Doctor as she took in the man covered in boils, leaking pus, his eyes blood shot and his hair thin and falling out. His entire body was scraggly and sickly.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The Doctor closed the door and moved on to the next which contained a young woman who was in a similar condition.

"What disease is that?" Cassandra questioned for me.

"All of them. Every single disease in the galaxy. They've been infected with everything. "The Doctor informed Rose and I.

"That's horrible." Rose said quietly and she looked close to tears.

"What about us? Are we safe?" Cassandra piped in again.

"The air's sterile. Just don't touch them." He told us and closed up the girl again.  
"How many patients are there?" Rose's voice quavered slightly as she posed the question. I could tell she was imagining their suffering and then trying to quantify it by the number of individuals.

"They're not patients." The Doctor said harshly.

"But they're sick." Cassandra countered before Rose could respond.

"They were born sick. They're meant to be sick. They exist to be sick. Lab rats. No wonder the Sisters have got a cure for everything. They've built the ultimate research laboratory. A human farm." I could sense the Doctor's rage building and I could feel my anxiety spike at the idea of being confronted with it again.  
"Why don't they just keel over?" Cassandra asked with no sympathy. I had never wanted to punch somebody quite so badly.  
"Plague carriers. The last to go." He said and turned. I realized that Hame must have entered just then and it was now that the Oncoming Storm was about to move in.

"It's for the greater cause." Novice Hame claimed and the Doctor grew infuriated as he argued with her about the ethics behind this.

"What's the turnover, hmm? Thousand a day? Thousand the next? Thousand the next? How many thousands? For how many years? How many!" He demanded.

"Mankind needed us. They came to this planet with so many illnesses. We couldn't cope. We did try. We tried everything. We tried using clone-meat and bio-cattle, but the results were too slow, so the Sisterhood grew its own flesh. That's all they are. Flesh. "That wasn't true at all. They felt things, they had consciousness. I wished I could remind Novice Hame of that and help her see their suffering and utter torment.

"These people are alive." The Doctor countered for me.

"But think of those Humans out there, healthy and happy, because of us." Novice Hame tried to make him understand.

"If they live because of this, then life is worthless." Hissed the Doctor in return.

"But who are you to decide that?"

"I'm the Doctor. And if you don't like it, if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with me. "His fury seeped into his words and Novice Hame was starting to cave under the pressure of the Doctor's wrath. Luckily for her, Cassandra saved her.

"Just to confirm. None of the humans in the city actually know about this?" Her question interrupted the argument.

"We thought it best not." Hame relented reluctantly.

"Hold on. I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. One thing I can't understand. What have you done to Jessica and why is Rose so afraid of it?" I could feel a glimmer of Cassandra's fear at that question and felt a somewhat small spike of satisfaction in her fear. It was nice to see that someone could still keep her under wraps.

"I don't know what you mean." Hame was truly confused.

"And I'm being very, very calm. You want to be aware of that. Very, very calm. And the only reason I'm being so very, very calm is that the brain is a delicate thing. Whatever you've done to Jessica's head, I want it reversed and I want you to stop threatening Rose. This ends now." His voice was like ice and a shiver went down my spine. It was both me and Cassandra who felt that way.

"We haven't done anything." Novice Hame asserted.

"We're totally fine." Cassandra assured the Doctor who didn't buy it one bit.

"Jessica would've scolded me for that last remark about a higher authority. She would've insisted that I remember that I'm 'not God' and therefore not all powerful. She does that, something you'll get used to if you get to know her since she believes in God and isn't shy about it, plus she enjoys knocking down my ego. But she didn't and Rose is scared. I can tell. But the most telling is that these people are dying and Jessica would be_ devastated_ by this much suffering." He related and I found that he knew me pretty well. That was a comfort; he knew that this hadn't been me.  
"Oh, all right, clever clogs. Smarty pants. Mr. Know It All." She ranted and played with the Doctor's tie as she got up real close.

"What's happened to you?" He asked and it was in a very concerned tone of voice. His eyes bore into mine as though trying to drag me back out of my mind-prison.

"I knew something was going on in this hospital, but I needed a body and your mind to find it out. Jessica took Rose's place and Rose is scared because she knows that this girl is expendable to me. I told her I'd do something horrible to her if she tried to warn you. It worked and now you're all strung out too. How wonderful a revenge this is shaping up to be."

"Who are you?"  
" The last human. "She whispered in his ear through my mouth.

"Cassandra?" His eyes grew wide with shock and my hand reached for my pocket and I tried to regain control desperately and keep her from doing this. There had to be another way we could help the poor people trapped down here. It turned out Cassandra was too strong. Rose stepped forward to intervene as she saw that Cassandra was up to something.

"Wake up and smell the perfume." She knocked them both out with a few spritzes and they fell to the floor with a dull clang reverberating in its metal. Novice Hame grew instantly concerned.

"You've hurt them. I don't understand. I'll have to fetch Matron."

"You do that, because I want to see her. Now, run along. Sound the alarm!" My voice all but screeched and as Novice Hame ran away Cassandra pulled a power cable and wailing red alarms set off.  
"We have to do something!" I pleaded with the TARDIS and indicated the screen. She shook her head sadly.

"We can't do anything until you're free of Cassandra. Her mind is much stronger than yours due to its weaker state at this moment. And like I told you, you're especially vulnerable to psychic attacks. We're just going to have to watch and pray that this turns out alright like it should." So I was to sit back idly and watch. What else was new?


	11. Cassandra's Last Bow

I was mortified. The Doctor and Rose were being shoved into the one empty cell left and I was mortified because there was nothing I could do. That and the cats were coming. Idris had gone for a little while, saying that she needed to go and strengthen one of the mental barriers that was deteriorating and that left me alone in the Console Room. Or alone for all of a minute before the doors to the Console Room opened and in walked Cassandra, in her human form no less.

"My, is this place a mess. Tell me, does your whole life revolve around him?" She asked and indicated the unconscious Doctor through the monitor.

"Get out!" I growled and stalked over to her, intent on forcibly expelling her.

"Not until we've talked and I've gotten a bit more information. Besides, we're sharing the same space now. It's only civil to get to know each other. " She tutted.

"I want nothing to do with you."

"You don't really have a choice do you? You were so adamant on protecting Rose Tyler that you were perfectly willing to throw your life away for her. Why is that? Why do you place such little value on yourself?" She walked over and worked the Console for a moment while images of my past experiences with the Doctor flitted by on the screen starting with the decimations of the Master, the exterminations by the Dalek among Van Statten's men, and ending in the third Doctor's rant with the second Doctor's assertion of my uselessness. "You really see yourself as this: useless? Or is there something more to it as well?" She questioned in a voice that could only be seen as confused.

"That's none of your business." I roughly shoved her hands away and she glanced towards me as she continued to analyze my thoughts.

"You don't fear death as long as your life has meant something. In fact, you feel a peace about it. Why do you not fear death?" Unsure of what to say I simply tapped the cross necklace hanging on my neck and left it there. It was something that my psychic version of myself was wearing since it was a very treasured gift from my grandmother and such an identifying mark of who I was. "I envy you your sense of security." She told me honestly and I knew that the representation of Cassandra before me was exactly the same as I was. The very core of her hurting being.

"You know how to get it, you're inside my head." I told her slowly, still a bit wary. She nodded thoughtfully. After a moment I tried to talk her out of this. "You don't need to try and get revenge you know. You can stop this now." I told her. She laughed coolly.

"You feel secure in your forgiveness, rooted in your faith. But me, I have no wish to die, nor any peace about it. I want to live and the Doctor nearly took that from me. He needs to be punished."

"You've got me Cassandra. Take my body and leave him and Rose alone. They can't do you any harm if you just go. You don't have to kill them." I pleaded as I looked at the cell that was securing both Rose and the Doctor. There was so precious little time left before they were infected.

"If I leave with you, he'll follow. You heard him and you've seen him when he's in a fit. If I go, he won't stop until he's tracked us down and killed me. No; this is the only option I have and besides, he needs to answer for what he's done to me. Why this place?" She changed the subject before I could try and reason with her once more. "Why this version of his time-space craft? I was able to pick up on that in your very surface-level memories, his wonderful little toy. Why this particular version though?" How could I tell her that the Doctor I felt the safest around, the most secure and loved around was Two? From the moment he saw me he had extended his arms quite literally in compassion and he was so very gentle when he dealt with me. In him I saw the first glimmer of home I'd had since departing from my universe.

"Like I said: none of your business." She smirked at me and I could tell that everything I'd said, every way we'd interacted meant nothing. She was still going to carry on this charade and still try and kill the Doctor and Rose. And she'd use me to do it.

"You're no threat to me. That's what I came down here to determine. Enjoy the show 'Jessie' and watch as your precious Doctor and his companion die in the most creative way that I can imagine. Thousands of ways all at once." She then walked out the doors and I made to follow her but they locked, sealing her out and myself in.

"That was no good. She must've slipped through the break in the shielding." The TARDIS said as she returned back to the Console Room after repairs. "She won't be getting back in here."

"And I won't be getting out anytime soon." I sighed and did as Cassandra suggested. I got back to watching.

* * *

The Doctor and Rose woke up, very uncomfortable as they were squished in what was clearly intended to be a single person cell.  
"Let us out!" The Doctor yelled and Rose winced as his yell reverberated in the enclosed space.

"Aren't you lucky there was a spare? Standing room only. Pretty cozy too, but I didn't think you'd mind." She teased and I rolled my eyes at her stupid taunt.

"You've stolen Jessica's body." The Doctor recapped with a growl.

"What no 'Jessie' this time? It always calmed her when you said that. Or you know, before you made sure she knew how utterly inadequate you thought she was. Is it too inconveniencing that I inhabit her instead of Rose? She seems to think she's got nothing better to do. Y'know over the years, I've thought of a thousand ways to kill you, Doctor. And now, that's exactly what I've got. One thousand diseases. They pump the patients with a top-up every ten minutes. You've got about three minutes left. Enjoy."

"Just let Rose and Jessica go Cassandra." The Doctor begged and Rose glared at him for not including himself in that demand. Even though she didn't have room to turn her head it was still a pretty deadly glare. She wasn't about to let the Doctor trade himself for her.

"I will release Jessica. As soon as I've found someone younger, and less common, then I'll junk her with the waste. Now hushaby. It's show time." Cassandra turned to the cat nuns that had come down into the ICU.

"Anything we can do to help?" One of them asked.

"Straight to the point, Whiskers. I want money." They refused, mocking her demands with a laugh when she threatened to tell the city about the ICU if they didn't do as she ordered.

"I'd really advise you to think about this." Cassandra warned.

"Oh, there's no need. I have to decline." The lead cat nun (the Matron I think) waved her off.

"I'll tell them, and you've no way of stopping me. You're not exactly Nuns with Guns. You're not even armed." Cassandra countered.

"Don't antagonize them!" I yelled to her and pounded on the locked doors to the Console Room. Of course nothing happened.

"Who needs arms when we have claws?" The Matron then unsheathed her claws and hissed at Cassandra. Or me, as I was starting to realize. If Cassandra got hurt it would actually be me and while I didn't fear death as much as some, I had no intention of dying that day. But then Cassandra's main priority kicked in: survival. She had Chip pull down a lever that released all the lonely and dying patients and Rose and the Doctor too.  
"What've you done?" Rose asked.

"Gave the system a shot of adrenaline, just to wake them up. See you!" And Cassandra took off running. "Don't touch them! Whatever you do, don't touch!" The Doctor yelled at us all, human, psychotic consciousness, and cat alike. A patient confronted the cats and declared that they were done with the death for themselves and all like them. He killed himself in order to free the rest of his companions and one of the nurses died as the patients touched her.

"Oh no." Cassandra said as the nurse fell dead.

"What have you done?!" The Doctor repeated Rose's early question but Cassandra denied culpability.

"One touch and you get every disease in the world, and I want that body safe, Cassandra. And Rose too. We've got to go down." The Doctor ordered.

"But there's thousands of them!" Cassandra protested as Rose took off in a bolt in the direction the Doctor told her to go.

"Run! Down! Down! Go down!" The Doctor instructed and dragged Cassandra along by the hand.

They ran down a stairwell as the Doctor hurried us along. Cassandra went to get an elevator (or lift as it is called outside the States) to come up and speed the escape but nothing came.

"No, the lifts have closed down. That's the quarantine. Nothing's moving." He scolded her.

"This way!" She ushered the Doctor and Rose towards the lair that she had been hiding in. As we turned the corners Chip appeared in our line of sight.

"Someone will touch him." Rose tugged at the Doctor and pointed out that he was about to be converged upon.  
"Leave him! He's just a clone thing. He's only got a half-life. Come on!" Cassandra instructed and started to run away. She was even more callous than I thought. Chip was her only friend and she was throwing him away like he was garbage.

"I'm sorry. I can't let her get away." I heard the Doctor say to Chip when he begged for Cassandra's help. I felt a spike of guilt and sadness at Chip's call and even Cassandra seemed to be ill at ease. The Doctor for his part took off down the hall towards my body with Rose sorrowfully tailing him.  
"My Mistress!" I heard his mournful voice echo and had to work hard on blotting it out. If I didn't it'd drive me insane. We eventually reached a corridor where we were as sealed off as Chip. There were "patients" starting to converge on every side.

"We're trapped! What am I going to do?" She questioned in despair. Rose glared at her in anger at the "I" only statement while the Doctor got down to doing what it was he usually did. He took charge.

"Well, for starters, you're going to leave that body. That psychograft is banned on every civilized planet. You're compressing Jessica to death. And don't even think about going into Rose or you will be sorry." He ordered and Cassandra rolled my eyes.

"But I've got nowhere to go. My original skin's dead."

"Not my problem. You can float as atoms in the air. Now, get out. Give my Jessie back to me." His voice took on a deadly quality and I could tell that it was tearing him apart to see me like this. He wanted nothing more than to speak to me when it was actually me.

"You asked for it." I then felt a tingling sensation and darkness overtook me for a moment before I woke up with a splitting headache and more vertigo.

"Ugh. My head." I moaned and rubbed it while Rose came over to help stabilize me as I swayed on my feet. "Where did—"

"Oh, my. This is different." I heard Ten say but I knew it wasn't Ten.

"Oh, come on!" I threw my hands up in exasperation and stalked over to glare at Cassandra tucked away in the Doctor's body.

"Goodness me, I'm a man. Yum. Oh, oh, two hearts! Oh, baby, I'm beating out a samba!" She danced a bit in the Doctor's body in a way that was both humorous and completely creepy.

"Get out of him Cassandra!" Rose yelled at her.

"Oo, he's slim, and a little bit foxy. You've thought so too. I've been inside Jessica's head and she's seen it. I know you've been looking. You like it." Rose flushed slightly and I groaned at the fact that she was doing so good a job at distracting from the matter at hand. Suddenly the doors burst open and in flooded the diseased people who'd been chasing us.

"What do we do? What would he do? The Doctor, what would he do?!" Cassandra frantically asked from the Doctor's mouth. Rose noticed an escape route.

"Ladder. We've got to get up." She indicated a ladder that went into the ceiling. Cassandra barreled past us both to reach it first.

"Out of the way blondie, kiddo!" She yelled and went onto the rungs. I shoved Rose after her and started up myself when I heard a woman pleading.

"Please, help us. Help." She groaned in pain and I felt my heart breaking. I looked back and with a small shake of my head told her that help would be coming soon. With determination I set out after Rose and Cassandra. The Doctor had to make this right.

* * *

"If you get out of the Doctor's body, he can think of something. " I told Cassandra who wasn't in the mood.  
"Yap, yap, yap. It was tedious inside your head. 'The Doctor doesn't like me anymore, let's play martyr.' It's always about him isn't it?" She responded and I felt my anger rise at her analysis of my thoughts.

"We're going to die if—"Rose started to reply when I yelped as I felt something pulling at my leg.

"Get off of me!" I yelled at the cat Matron.

"All our good work. All that healing. The good name of the Sisterhood. You have destroyed everything." She accused and I didn't really feel that guilty about that part of the whole fiasco. These were_ lives_, not lab rats.

"Go and play with a ball of string." Cassandra responded from the Doctor's body.

"Everywhere, disease. This is the human world. Sickness!" She didn't get much else in because one of the patients touched her and she instantly broke out in boils and who knows what else. Screaming in anguish and pain she let go of the ladder and fell to oblivion and I mentally added another chalk line to my tally of deaths I was responsible for.

"Move!" Rose told Cassandra who kept climbing but the computer shut off the door to the exit as a part of the quarantine.

"Help us." I heard a man plead.  
"Now what do we do?" Cassandra asked.

"Use the sonic screwdriver." Rose suggested.

"You mean this thing?" She plucked it out of his pocket and held it strangely since she didn't know how to even approach using it.

"Yes, I mean that thing." Rose said in exasperation.

"I don't know how. The Doctor's hidden away all his thoughts." She responded.

"Cassandra, would you just get back in here, please? We need the Doctor now and I mean _now_." I demanded. She saw the sense in what I was saying.

"Fine. Hold on tight." And then I was shoved back into the Console Room of my mind, hoping the Doctor would be less stubborn and let Cassandra use me for now.

"Oh the teenaged drama queen again with a tendency to get preachy. Wonderful. Open it!" She bemoaned and by now I'd grown used to her griping and insults so I didn't even get that upset.

"Not until you get out of her!" The Doctor responded stubbornly.  
"We need the Doctor right now. Rose too!" Cassandra manipulated.

"I order you to leave her." The Doctor persisted after giving a small glance to Rose. "Jessica can get you out of here too." That wasn't true! I didn't know how to work the screw driver. Cassandra went back into the Doctor anyways.

"No matter how difficult the situation, there is no need to shout." Cassandra scolded him and I gave her a death stare.

"Cassandra, get out of him!" I demanded and she pouted.

"But I can't go into you or Rose, he simply refuses. He's so rude." She grumbled and I rubbed the bridge of my nose.  
"I don't care. Go into me or somewhere else but do something! I _don't _know what to do!"

"Oh, I am so going to regret this." And Cassandra hurled herself into one of the people chasing us. The Doctor quickly opened the doors and herded Rose and I out whilst giving me a smile and a pat on the back.

"It's good to have you back." He said. Before I could respond Cassandra took over once again and I fell flat on my behind from the force of the impact.

"That was your last warning, Cassandra!" The Doctor growled at her but she just stared ahead listlessly.  
"Inside her head. They're so alone. They keep reaching out, just to hold us. All their lives and they've never been touched." The Doctor's eyes softened and he gave Cassandra a hand and guided her towards Ward 26. A woman lunged towards us when we got there, intent on expelling what she thought were plague carriers.

"We're safe! We're safe! We're safe! We're clean! We're clean! Look, look. You can put that thing down, yeah?" Rose offered her soft and clear hands in a sign of reassurance.

"Show me your skin!" The attacking woman demanded and we all showed it to her. She nodded when she felt that we were satisfactorily clean.

"Look, clean. Look, if we'd been touched, we'd be dead. So how's it going up here? What's the status?" The Doctor asked.

"There's nothing but silence from the other wards. I think we're the only ones left. And I've been trying to override the quarantine. If I can trip a signal over to New New York, they can send a private executive squad." The woman said.

"You can't do that. If they forced entry, they'd break quarantine." The Doctor told her and I felt a slight moment of panic at the idea of disease running so rampant around there.

"I am not dying in here." The woman countered and while I understood, she was being selfish and not thinking about the potential disaster that she might unleash.

"There's millions of people out there. You can't put them at risk because you're scared. Listen to the Doctor." Rose scolded her and she looked conflicted.

"I won't if this is what gets me out." She insisted.

"All right, fine. So I have to stop you lot as well. Suits me. Rose, novice Hame, everyone! Excuse me, your Grace. Get me intravenous solutions for every single disease. Move it!" People started collecting the solutions for the Doctor which he attached to himself with a heavy duty silk rope. He looked like a man suited up and ready for war with multicolored liquid ammo.

"How's that? Will that do?" The Doctor turned to Cassandra and asked.  
"I don't know. Will it do for what?" Cassandra queried and he went over to the elevator.

"Those aren't working." Cassandra chastised as he fiddled with it.

"Not moving. Different thing. Here we go." He put the sonic between his teeth and ran out and grabbed onto the cable, ignoring Rose's shout to be careful.

"What do you think you're doing?" Cassandra demanded.

"I'm going down! Come on!" He attached some sort of round device to the cable that would help him move down the shaft.

"Not in a million years. Take blondie." She stuck my thumb over towards Rose who actually seemed to be onboard with the idea.

"I need another pair of hands. What do you think? If you're so desperate to stay alive, why don't you live a little? And Rose's already been through enough today. I think it's your turn to start pulling your weight." I tensed. Were those words directed to me or to Cassandra?

"Seal the door!" The woman who nearly attacked us yelled and Rose shouted as she was herded back inside with the group of hiding people.  
"No!" Cassandra yelped as we were surrounded by more of the diseased patients. Seeing no other option she ran and jumped onto the Doctor's back. "You're completely mad. I can see why Rose likes you, why Jessica admires you. Selfless to the point of suicidal." She teased.  
"Going down!" The Doctor said and I felt my stomach lurch as we swiftly descended with only the grip of the Doctor on the mechanism as our means of safety. We came to a sudden and screeching halt and my heart was set to burst with how fast it was beating.  
"Well, that's one way to lose weight. And boy does she need it." Cassandra commented and I saw the Doctor grow slightly angry on my behalf but more pressing matters took over his attention.

"Now, listen. When I say so, take hold of that lever." He instructed Cassandra and indicated the lever he meant.  
"There's still a quarantine down there, we can't—" Cassandra started to argue but was cut off.

"Hold that lever! I'm cooking up a cocktail. I know a bit about medicine myself. If you'd listened to Jessica at all you'd have known that." He then proceeded to rip the bags of the IVs with his teeth and pour the contents into the elevator's disinfectant system.

"Now, that lever's going to resist. But keep it in position. Hold onto it with everything you've got." He reminded her.

"What about you?" Cassandra asked and at the same time I did and it felt really weird. Was I rubbing off on her? Or was she encompassing my being?

"I've got an appointment. The Doctor is in." He hopped down into the elevator and lured the diseased patients over to him. I sighed in relief as I now knew that everything would turn out alright but Cassandra questioned his sanity as he was sprayed with the cocktail through the disinfectant system. However, the patients got in and touched the Doctor. After touching him they were cured within seconds; all their maladies seemed to vanish into thin air.

"All they want to do is pass it on. Pass it on!" The Doctor encouraged and I smiled deeply at his euphoria in saving people. Because that was what he did. He was the Doctor and he saved people without even asking for a reward or thank you. He did it because he was a good man, a genius, and he knew that with those traits came a heavy but noble responsibility and I absolutely loved him for that. The Doctor helped Cassandra down and into the elevator when his healing work was done.

"What did they pass on? Did you kill them? All of them?" Cassandra questioned and I scoffed at the question. He wouldn't do that.

"No. That's your way of doing things. I'm the Doctor and I cured them!" His grin was contagious and even Cassandra quirked a small smile. A woman made her way over and hugged the Doctor in gratitude which he returned. "That's right. Hey, there we go, sweetheart. Go to him. Go on, that's it. That's it." He encouraged her to keep passing on the cure. "It's a new sub-species, Cassandra. A brand new form of life. New humans! Look at them. Look! Grown by cats, kept in the dark, fed by tubes, but completely, completely alive. You can't deny them, because you helped create them. The human race just keeps on going, keeps on changing. If only you humans would stop killing life before it had it even had a chance to reach its potential. Whether it's an unborn fetus in a womb, a child just learning to walk, an old man or woman, or a sub-species like this, all life is precious and so very, very marvelous and everyone deserves a chance to give what only they as an individual can. Everyone deserves a chance at life, no matter how they came to be so take another look. Look at them Cassandra! Life keeps on moving and it won't stop! Ha!" He declared victoriously.

* * *

It was later and the cats were all being rounded up into custody by the police. We made our way back to Ward 26 where Rose was waiting with the Face of Boe.

"The Face of Boe!" The Doctor cheered happily as he and Cassandra ran towards him. "You were supposed to be dying."

"There are better things to do today. Dying can wait." I heard the Face of Boe respond and I winced as his voice loudly reverberated in my already crowded head.

"Oh, I hate telepathy. Just what I need, a head full of big face." Cassandra complained for me but Rose hushed her.

"I have grown tired with the universe, Doctor, but you have taught me to look at it anew." The Face of Boe continued.

"There are legends, you know, saying that you're millions of years old." The Doctor brought up and The Face of Boe seemed amused by the prospect. Probably because those rumors had some substantial truth behind them and it was ridiculous how they did.

"There are? That would be impossible." He responded.

"Wouldn't it just. I got the impression there was something you wanted to tell me." The Doctor steered things back on track.

"A great secret."

"So the legend says." The Doctor conceded.  
"It can wait." The Face of Boe said pleasantly and I chuckled at his antics and teasing. Then I felt guilty as I knew this great secret but had done nothing to warn the Doctor about it.

"Oh, does it have to?" The Doctor whined in response. Rose shook her head in mock disapproval and elbowed him for being childish.

"We shall meet again, Doctor, for the third time, for the last time, and the truth shall be told. Until that day." And with a sparkling beam the Face of Boe left after giving me a small look of good bye and sadness. He knew what I was feeling right now and empathized with me. But I didn't want pity. I wanted to be able to fix things and set them right.

"That is enigmatic. That, that is, that is textbook enigmatic. And now for you." He turned to Cassandra and she backed up a bit, about ready to flee with my body and get away from the man intent on expelling her and ending her life.

"But everything's happy. Everything's fine. Can't you just leave me? After all that talk about life being precious—"

"You've lived long enough. You've had that chance Cassandra. Leave that body and end it. Get some rest." The Doctor told her gently.  
"I don't want to die." She sobbed and I could feel the fear coursing through her.

"No one really does." The Doctor countered.

"Jessica doesn't seem as afraid of it." She hesitantly brought up. The Doctor smiled sorrowfully.

"My Jessica is very brave and very sure of her faith. She's sure of what will happen to her after death and has made peace with that but even she falters and fears the moment of death. She's only human after all, like you. She's not perfect."

"I want that peace Doctor. I envy her sense of security." She responded frankly.

"Mistress!" We all turned towards Chip who came barreling in the room.  
"Oh you're alive." Cassandra addressed him but there was some relief in her statement.

"I kept myself safe for you, mistress." Chip told Cassandra who seemed very keen on the idea.

"A body. And not just that, a volunteer."

"Don't you dare. He's got a life of his own." The Doctor told her sternly.

"But I worship the mistress. I welcome her." Chip responded indignantly to the Doctor's statement. Cassandra seemed to settle on this being the best course of action as the Doctor kept trying to dissuade her.

"You can't, Cassandra, you—" But Cassandra expelled herself from my body. Idris waved a fond goodbye and then I was whisked out of the Console Room in my mind and back into my regular consciousness. I started to fall to the ground in exhaustion and vertigo but the Doctor caught me. " Oh! You all right? Whoa! Okay?" He questioned with some panic when he took in my state.

"Y-yeah. Hi Doctor." I squeaked and blushed at the status of my voice. He gently hugged me close.

"Hello again Jessica Smith." He murmured into my hair.

"Oh no, I'm a walking doodle." Cassandra interrupted the moment as she took in her new body's appearance.

"You can't stay in there. I'm sorry, Cassandra, but that's not fair. I can take you to the city. They can build you a skin tank and you can stand trial for what you've done." The Doctor offered in desperation for Chip.

"Well, that would be rather dramatic. Possibly my finest hour, and certainly my finest hat, but I'm afraid we don't have time. Poor little Chip is only a half-life, and he's been through so much. His heart is racing so. He's failing. I don't think he's going to last." Chip's body fell to the floor on his knees and I felt another prick of regret at the fact that he was going to die because of me and so would Cassandra.

"You alright?" Rose asked of Cassandra as she squeezed her eyes shut in pain.

"I'm fine. I'm dying, but that's fine." Cassandra said slowly.  
"I can take you to the city." The Doctor brought up again.

"No, you won't. Everything's new on this planet. There's no place for Chip and me anymore. You're right, Doctor. It's time to die, and that's good. Jessica, you believe that you have forgiveness because you've repented and you feel a sort of peace about going which is good. Tell me, can I still have that forgiveness after all that you've seen me do? Do you think someone like me can get a second chance?" Chip's voice was hopeful and afraid all at once.

"If there's one thing that being with the Doctor has helped me to see better it's that everyone should and can have a second chance." I told her honestly. She gave a small smile.

"I might just take you up on that then."

"There is one more thing I can do." Ten told her and motioned to the TARDIS.

* * *

We materialized at a party in Cassandra's past. She was there gossiping and laughing loudly but not flat skinned. She was human and dressed in a fancy dress and heels with her make-up done dramatically.

"Thank you." Cassandra-Chip told the Doctor sincerely.

"Just go. And don't look back." He ordered.

"Good luck." Rose offered to her. We watched from the TARDIS door as Cassandra made her earthly peace.

"And if you actually see them, you're shocked. But don't quote me on that. Oh, naughty. À bientôt!" Cassandra's past self went on.

"Excuse me, Lady Cassandra." Cassandra-Chip interrupted her discussion.

"I'm sorry, I don't need anything right now. I'm fine, thank you." Her past self waved her off.

"No, I just wanted to say you look beautiful." Cassandra-Chip told her in a self-satisfied tone.

"Well, that's very kind, you strange little thing. Thank you very much." Cassandra as a normal human seemed to doubt the sincerity in the comment but responded courteously all the same.

"I mean it. You look so beautiful." Future Cassandra insisted and the other was taken aback.

"Thank you." Her eyes lit up in surprise but she no longer doubted the motives behind the comment as anything but genuine. Chip's body started to fail and it collapsed to the floor. Cassandra cradled Chip's form to her.

"Are you all right? What is it? What's wrong? Someone get some help! Call a medic or something, quickly!" Past Cassandra yelled for help.

"Who is he?" One of the other guests asked.

"I don't know. He just came up to me. I don't even know his name. He just collapsed. I think he's dying. Someone do something! I've got you, sweetheart. It's all right. There you are. There you are, I've got you. It'll be all right. There, there, you poor little thing." She comforted herself as she drifted off to sleep one final time. We closed the door after that and the Doctor set the TARDIS in motion, carrying us far away from Cassandra.

* * *

"Well, that was quite an experience." I broke the silence after a solid half hour. Or what felt like it anyways.

"Are you alright Jessica? I wasn't kidding about the danger of that machine. It compresses people to death from the inside." He examined my head, tilting it from side to side.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I swatted away his hands which he scowled at.

"Thank you." Rose said to me and I blinked.

"Huh?"

"That could've been me. Thank you." She clarified for me and I understood now. I shrugged in forced nonchalance.

"Glad to finally be of some use."

"Stop talking about yourself like that. You're not useless." Ten scolded me and my temper flared.

"Then why did you practically call me that!"

"When did I do that?!" Ten demanded to know.

"With Omega! You said I wouldn't be of much use or something like that. I know that I'm not good for much other than tagging along and getting into trouble but you don't have to keep reminding me of that!"

"You just left that time with Omega? That's why you're upset with me?"

"What else would it be?" I replied and crossed my arms. He looked conflicted and ran a hand through his hair, making it even more disheveled.  
"Never mind. Just… You're not useless alright? Please don't ever talk yourself like that." He requested. I shrugged and looked away, suddenly uncomfortable. "Are you going to stay upset with me or enjoy your time here?" Ten asked cautiously. I gave him a glare to which he stood his ground and finally I sighed in exasperation.

"I can't stay mad at you." I groaned and he grinned cheekily. Rose laughed at our interaction and I was about to say something more when the telltale signs of Vortex hopping played in my system.

"You're kidding me right?! I just got here!" I moaned and felt the pressure in my head build until it felt like it was about to explode. "This isn't fair!"

"I'm sorry." Ten said with more than a little bit of sadness.

"I want to stay Doctor. I want to be still for a while. I want to stay with you." I pleaded. He squeezed my hand in reassurance.

"You'll see me soon." With that I felt my body flushed out into the Vortex and I was hurtled once again through time and space into another TARDIS. But it appeared that this time my desire to go home would be answered.

* * *

"Jessie, Jessie can you hear me?" The Doctor gently shook my shoulder.  
"I'm getting tired of passing out." I grumbled. Looking up I saw just who I'd landed with and a big smile crossed my face. "Doctor!" I held my arms out wide in a familiar gesture, just as he had greeted me. He grinned widely and returned my embrace.  
"Well Jessica, it is wonderful to see you too." Two said amicably as he held me for a moment. "Just what have you been up to?"

**A/N: I'm going to be honest: I'm not sure which second Doctor story I'm going to do here. Two is my favorite so we'll be seeing a lot of him. Perhaps "The Highlanders" or "The Tomb of the Cybermen". My personal favorites are "The Enemy of the World" and "The Web of Fear". I'm open to suggestions!**


	12. Rebellions and Allies

**A/N: Accents are not my thing. I'm sorry. I'll throw in hints of them but I am by no means going to try and alter all the things these characters say to sound Scottish. It would be insulting to all Scottish people everywhere and the characters as I butchered the way they spoke so I won't. If there's a beta who can do this whole accent thing/dialogue thing and wants to help, let me know. Otherwise it stands as is and please imagine the dialogue sounds Scottish.**

"What have I been doing?" I asked, unsure of how to respond. "I um…"

"What is it Doctor? What's going on?" I heard a voice say. I turned around and saw two people enter the console room.

"Nothing at all Polly. It's just Jessica dropping in to say hello." The Doctor indicated my form with a hand.

"Oh. Hello." Polly said and extended her hand to me which I took happily. "How are you?" She asked and I shrugged.

"It's been a busy past few… To be honest I have no idea how much time has passed. Let's say jumps."

"What is it, what's happening?" I heard a male ask and in ducked Ben from the depths of the TARDIS. "Oh, it's you again! Hello Jessie!" Ben waved from the staircase and I smiled up at him, glad of the warm reception.

"This is the friendliest greeting I've had so far." I told them and the Doctor frowned.

"Yes, sorry about that. You have a knack for turning up when there's trouble." He reminded me and I grinned sheepishly at that perfectly logical assertion.

"Well…yeah. Yeah I do. But remember it's your timeline that I pop up in. So tell me Doctor, what's new with you?" I asked, eager to see what was going on with him.

"Can't you tell? He's changed his face!" Ben informed me and the Doctor frowned slightly at his exclamation.

"Jessica is well aware of the process of regeneration, thank you Ben." He somewhat snapped and I could see a bit of hurt in his eyes.

"Recently?" I questioned softly and his eyes spoke it all. I gave him another hug. "You're still him you know." I whispered in his ear. "You're still the Doctor. Don't ever forget that." This had been his first time changing and while he seemed to take it all with a smile, the second Doctor was a master of playing the fool while planning something else mischievous or sometimes deadly. There was much more going on beneath his surface than he let on.

"Oh, do stop teasing him Ben." Polly insisted and I felt a surge of gratitude towards the headstrong and confident woman who was able to keep the kibosh on the rambunctious and witty Ben.

"I didn't mean anything by it. He has, hasn't he?" Ben said in his own defense and I could tell he truly meant nothing against the Doctor. He had no idea that his words would hurt him so much.

"I'm not an infant who needs coddling Jessie, Polly. " He scolded as I let go of him and I blushed.

"Sorry." I muttered.

"What you need is another trip to help get settled in." Polly suggested. The Doctor raised an eyebrow, but after giving it some thought seemed to agree with the idea.

"Alright, let's see what the Old Girl has for us this time. I'll set the TARDIS console to random." The Doctor's eyes sparked with excitement at the idea and away we went out into time and space and who knew where. All I knew was that I was home and it felt good.

* * *

When we landed Ben went out first, followed closely by Polly, then me, and lastly the Doctor.

"It's so cool." Polly commented and I shivered slightly against the cold. I had had time to change into a red skirt with a plaid design, and a solid long-sleeved black shirt. My TARDIS key hung around my neck and my hair was put up in a ponytail with the seal of Rassilon attached to the front of my shirt. The Doctor had eyed it with some wistfulness but said nothing more on the subject of it.

When we stepped out the ground was wet and the grass was thick. The air had a bitter chill and the wind whipped at us adding further to the cold that was creeping in past my skin and into my bones. But it was a stunning and beautiful sight all the same. The area was alive with green vegetation, rich and fertile. The air smelled of mud and water and life. It gave me a clarity of mind and soothed my stress for a moment.

"Hey, Polly." Ben said with a grin in his voice.

"What?" Polly asked of Ben.

"Where does this remind you of?"

"Oh, it's cold and damp." Polly replied, unsure of what else to say.

"No, where does it remind you of?" Ben insisted. I shook my head, unsure of what he wanted from her. This was entirely new territory for me. Most of the second Doctor's episodes had gone missing so I had only been able to catch a few. This was one of the ones I didn't know.

"Ouch! Prickles! What?" Polly asked of him as she accidentally ran into some plants while exploring the area a bit more.

"Where else could it be? We're home, Duchess!" I couldn't help but give a grin at the affectionate pet name that Ben had for his friend. According to Sarah Jane, these two would be married and it was something that I could totally see and fully supported.

"Oh, you never give up hope, do you? We'll ask the Doctor. Hey, Doctor." Polly called for Two who shushed her with a wave of his hand.

"Listen." He pointed into the air and we all fell silent and listened to the chaos going on around us. There was loud explosions and what sounded like them making their impacts. Where had we landed?

"It sounds like my brother's military video games." I piped up. Suddenly there was a loud whistling overhead.

"Look out!" Polly pointed at an incoming projectile and we all hit the ground, the Doctor diving into some brambles and covering his hands with his head. There was a loud boom that penetrated through the brisk air and shook our bodies in its concussive sound wave. Ben went to investigate, Polly followed, and deciding that I too was curious I trailed after them.

"What are you doing down there?" The Doctor called after us as we arrived at the sight of the collision. On the ground was a live cannon ball. Real and smoking slightly in its settled state. I bent down to get a better look at it.

"What was it? It looks like an old-time cannon ball. Ow! It's hot." Ben reached out to touch it and then instantly backed away, shaking his hand at the heat coming off of it.

"Maybe we shouldn't touch smoking cannon balls with our bare hands?" I suggested cheekily. He rolled his eyes at me.

"Allow me. Yes, a ten pounder. That does it." The Doctor handled it with ease and Ben scowled at being shown up. I smirked slightly at his reaction. He was afraid of looking bad in front of Polly. The Doctor suggested that we head back to the TARDIS. That this simply wasn't safe.

"But Doctor, we can't leave. This looks like England." Polly protested and Ben agreed wholeheartedly.

"Yeah, I'm going to look over that hill." Ben insisted and took off before anyone could stop him.

"Doctor, you don't want us to think you're afraid, do you?" Polly baited and I wanted to scold her for the low blow but the Doctor took it in stride.

"Why not?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with being scared? Being afraid can keep you alive in potentially deadly situations. Like this one." I added. Polly considered this for a moment before making up her own mind.

"Look, we can't let Ben go up there on his own. We don't know what he's going to find. Come on." She took off after Ben and the Doctor gave me a look of helplessness.

"Well, we can't let them wander off on their own. Come on Jessie." The Doctor extended his hand to me to help me up from my crouched stance from where I'd been examining the cannon ball and we set off in a run after his wayward companions.

Ben came upon an abandoned field gun in the middle of an expanse of green. I felt the hairs on the pack of my neck prickle like something was wrong here. It felt as though eyes were boring straight into us but there was no one else around so I shook off the feeling as just my worry starting to get the better of me.

"Hey, look! This must be where that cannon ball came from." Ben declared and indicated the weapon. The Doctor seemed skeptical.

"It's unlikely." He determined.

"What do you mean it's unlikely?" Ben countered, confused as to how he could be wrong.

"It's been spiked." Upon further inspection I saw that there was indeed a long spike that had been hammered down the barrel of the field gun.

"Well, how did you know?" Ben harrumphed and Polly and I shared a look at his antics. Instead however, something caught the Doctor's eye. It was a hat plumed with eagle feathers and rather interesting in its design.

"I would like a hat like this. How do I look?" He put the hat on and held his arms out to the side in a gesture of showmanship. I giggled as I remembered Eleven's predilection for liking hats and understanding more clearly where it came from.

"It's got words on it. 'With Charles our brave and merciful Prince Royal, we'll greatly fall or nobly save our country'." Polly read off the side of it.

"Bah. Romantic piffle." The Doctor threw down the hat and I yelped in fear when in an instant there was a man against his back and a blade against his throat.

"You'll pick it up." A man with a thick Scottish accent asserted. I turned and noticed that Ben was in the care of yet another man and had to try and fight the smile that wanted to break out on my face. Then I noticed the dirk at Ben's chest and my smile quickly gave way to confusion and a frown. What was going on here?

"Careful, like." James Robert McCrimmon said and why he was threatening the Doctor I didn't know. They were the best and closest of friends and I didn't understand it. But then I realized that Jamie might not know the Doctor at this point and I felt uneasy as I didn't know for certain what was to come of this first interaction. I only hoped that my being here didn't cause any potential to ruin them becoming a team because that would be something I could never live with if I caused it to happen. I stooped down quickly to pick up the hat and held it out to Jamie as a peace offering. He gave it a once-over before turning his gaze to me, his eyes seeming to take in every inch. I shrank a bit under his calculating gaze but eventually he dropped it and concentrated on Ben, assessing him as the threat and not me.

"The lassie at least knows how to treat the Prince's cockade with respect. This way with you. Quick!" The other Scotsman with Jamie indicated the path we should follow and slowly relinquished his hold on the Doctor. Jamie did likewise with Ben and prodded him slightly in the back with his dirk to which Ben gave him a dirty glare. The other man took up the front, with the Doctor following behind him, Polly next in line, and Ben moved to stand by Polly leaving me in the back of the procession with Jamie. Of all the times I had wanted to meet Jamie McCrimmon, this was probably the worst way to be introduced. He did, after all, have a weapon pointed in my general direction. As warm greetings go, this one was a bust.


	13. An Almost Hanging

Being marched away under armed guard is always disconcerting to say the least. Eventually we came to a small cottage and were ushered in. Ben gave the men guarding us a dirty look and put his arm around Polly's shoulder before going in with her. The Doctor took one look back at me and gave me what was meant to be a reassuring smile before stepping in and I looked back uneasily at Jamie who ignored my glance. Gulping slightly I stepped into the house, unsure of what to expect.

There was an older man bleeding out on the floor and a young woman grasping him tightly. I felt a flash back to the gore the Dalek created in Van Staten's vault and had to turn my head to avoid getting sick.

"We're going to awa' to the caves." The man rasped to the young woman who was cradling his head.

"Father, you're in no fit state to travel." She scolded and I realized that it was fairly obvious that they were related. Why I didn't make the connection sooner was beyond me.

"Kirsty! Get away with you." The man who wasn't Jamie but had captured us ordered.

"Who are they?" The girl's father indicated the group of us. Ben looked riled up and I knew it was only a matter of time before he did something stupid like get hostile. These people were afraid and needed help, that much was plain. Violence wasn't going to solve anything. Maybe we could talk this out.

"I know not. They're no Scot. They threw down the Prince's cockade. 'Cept for this woman here." Jamie's friend answered, pointing to me and I felt very small all of a sudden. "She knew the proper way to treat it."

"Cockade?" Polly asked.

"What prince?" Ben questioned at the same time.

"Prince Charles Edward. Bonnie Prince Charlie." The Doctor said as he finally caught onto what was going on.

"You have the tongue. Aye, I thought so. English, the three of them. Camp followers to the Duke of Cumberland, come to steal from the dead." He turned to scrutinize me since I was the apparent enigma here, never mind the fact that these three also looked incredibly out of place. "This one hasn't said much but is as frightened as a mouse. Prisoner of theirs perhaps?" He mused and with a satisfying diagnosis Jamie yanked me away from the TARDIS crew and planted me behind him, obviously seeing me as one who needed protecting from the "bloodthirsty" English. I didn't know whether to feel flattered at his chivalry or annoyed at the fact they saw me as quivering and helpless and needed protection (even though I will admit I had been shaking a bit from the adrenaline rush and the cold as it finally settled in upon me), so I went for the former and tried to ignore the latter.

"Um…" I started to say when Ben was personally offended.

"Now listen here—"He started to correct them vehemently.

"Abide a moment! Do you wish to pray before you die?" The man who was bleeding out almost ironically inquired.

"Die?" I asked in horror but was ignored like they did the man's daughter.

"Die for what?" The Doctor demanded, wanting just to know what he was being sentenced to death for and still a bit uneasy at my presence being yanked from his side. His eyes flitted back from me to the men and their blades and I could tell his impatience and frustration was growing.

"Well, you can't kill us in cold blood!" Ben accused them angrily.

"Well, our blood's warm enough! Your English troopers gave no quarter to men, women and bairns." Jamie shot right back at him hotly. I grimaced at the mental image that that produced. I knew that this was a bloody conflict with lots of slaughter, the Jacobite rebellion. Beyond that my knowledge was limited but war is war and civilians are always caught in the crossfire, purposeful or no.

"Doctor, tell them who we are." Polly demanded, trying desperately to find a way out of this.

"Doctor?" The girl queried and scrutinized the little time lord. She was obviously hoping that he could provide aid for her gravely injured father.

"Get away with you, woman." Alexander pushed her away from the Doctor and his companions, concerned for her safety and showing it in a rather unsavory and brusque manner.

"We have need of a Doctor." She insisted.

"The Laird." He indicated her father, deferring to his instructions over anyone else's. I supposed he was in charge of these men in some way.

"Get me a doctor. Get me a doctor." The man on the floor, the Laird, ordered in a pitiful groan. My heart ached for him, he sounded like he was in so much pain and there was so much blood…

"Look, kill them after. Let them help the Laird first." The daughter of the Laird insisted.

"We're not going to trust the Laird with these Sassenachs, woman." The older Scotsman denied her plea. That was when I noticed Ben moving for the pistol that lay by the Laird's side.

"But if they can help him at all—"Kirsty, as I now knew his daughter to be named, started.

"Kirsty, get away, will you." The man was getting exasperated but so was Ben. I noticed the gleam in his eye and the eagerness with which he gripped the pistol. He was desperate to save a few lives. Well so was I. We would see who was the more desperate out of the two of us then. Nobody needed to die and certainly nobody's life needed to be threatened. Just by treating these people's culture with respect and dignity was I able to gain some of their trust. They already felt duty bound to protect me, stranger or no, and if Ben and Polly and the Doctor would only follow my lead perhaps we could get out of this mess.

"Just think of the women." I heard the Doctor plead with the older man who refused to let him care for their Laird and I knew he had noticed my unease with the blood and couldn't stand to see Kirsty in such anxiety over the status of her father. He had much too tender a heart for that and he wanted to help if only they would let him. Ben, as good as his intentions were and as wonderful a man as he was, had a temper and was about to start to steer things in the wrong direction very quickly and might interfere with their willingness to let the Doctor provide his aid if somebody didn't put a cap to his actions soon. And then he brought up the pistol to aim it at the Laird's head, making all my predictions

"Right, back both of you! Or your Laird won't need a doctor." He threatened and I exhaled deeply through my nose, my frustration at this situation starting to get the best of me. This was ridiculous. I knew that the Doctor and Jamie had to meet sometime, but this was turning out to be almost as bad as my own first introduction to the Doctor and at this rate they wouldn't be friends anytime soon.

"Well done, Ben. And now, gentlemen." The Doctor started in.

"I'm warning you!" Jamie's friend growled at the three of them.

"Your swords, I think. Ben, cock the pistol." The Doctor ordered and I glared at him, fed up, then marched out from behind the tense Jamie and straight in between the Laird and the pistol.

"Are you insane?! Get out of the way Jessie." Ben told me and I was getting fed up with how many times the girls in this room were being told that.

"Ben, lower the testosterone level and put away the peashooter. You might hurt someone and these people need our help. Doctor, this isn't the way to make any friends and you hate guns so stop egging Ben on." I whirled around to the Scottish men who were staring at me as I told off the two men of the other group. I supposed back talk from in quite this way was new to them. "As for you two, quit being so stubborn and let the Doctor take a look at your Laird. In case you didn't notice, he is currently _bleeding out _and can use some medical attention. None of us four are on anybody's side. Call us neutral and allow the Doctor to live up to his name or your friend might not make it 'til morning." I told them and crossed my arms, stubbornly showing that only when they were all done being idiots would I move.

"Let them pass." Kirsty agreed with me after a small moment of silence and it was almost comical but the men just blinked at each other and slowly moved to let the Doctor through.

"Before I do anything, I want your word you will not molest my friends and I. We're only trying to save your Laird from bleeding to death." The Doctor requested and Ben scoffed at him.

"You think that that'll make a difference?"

The two men accompanying their Laird shared one last silent communication and caved.

"Aye." Said the man who had been shoving away Kirsty.

"You have our word." Jamie relented, glancing warily at the four of us and his eyes lingered on me the longest. I met his gaze with a simple raised eyebrow. I had had enough of cowering behind the Doctor and letting anyone intimidate me. From now on it was time to be bold. It was time I stepped up and started pulling my weight as Ten had required of Cassandra. No more coddling. So I stood my ground and looked back at him with a courage I wasn't quite sure I felt all the way but it worked none the less. He dropped his gaze first and I chalked that up as a victory, if only a practice run because this was actually an ally I had competed with. Hopefully this attitude kept up around our enemies too.

"Put the gun away Ben." I told him sternly. He looked at the Doctor who nodded in agreement to my instructions.

"Polly, go with Kirsty to get some water so we can start treating this wound. Kirsty, please show her where it is." He ignored Ben's look of incredulity.

"I'll not leave him." Kirsty stubbornly refused.

"We're not going to hurt anybody." I told her softly and after looking deeply into my eyes she seemed to believe me. Reluctantly she stood up and grabbed a bucket with Polly trailing behind her.

"Here, Kirsty. Take the Laird's spyglass with you and watch out for these Sassenach dragoons." Jamie's friend gave the object to Kirsty.

"Thank you Alexander." She said, took the object, and started off with Polly in search of some water.

"Put the gun away Ben." The Doctor said as he started to inspect the Laird's wound.

"What, are you going to trust these blokes?" Ben questioned and waved the hand not holding the gun in the direction of the other two men.

"A Highlanders word is his bond. At least don't point it at me!" The Doctor said and Ben gave up and tossed the pistol onto the table. There was a loud BANG and I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound it made.

"It just went off." Ben quickly defended himself as we all looked at him, the two Scottish men in anger, myself in surprise, and the Doctor in what was slowly accumulating dread.

"You fool!" Alexander bit out at Ben.

"You'll have every English soldier within miles!" Jamie exclaimed and ran outside to take a look and see if anyone had indeed heard the noise of the pistol. The courage I'd been feeling earlier started to wane as some of the blood drained from my face. I tried to put up a brave face for the Doctor who looked my way, but I could tell he wasn't buying it. With concern in his eyes he shifted his scrutiny from myself to his other companion.

"Well, what's wrong with that?" Ben asked, offended yet again from the sound of it.

"What's-? You should have paid more attention to your history books, Ben." Scolded the Doctor tiredly as he seemed to be prepping for what was to come.

"Ay?" Ben asked, confused now. Jamie burst through the door and went straight to Alexander to report what he'd seen as his Laird continued to bleed through some makeshift bandages the Doctor had to hastily apply during the commotion.

"Redcoats! There's about six of them." He informed his friend.

"They'll slaughter us all." Alexander grimly stated and he scanned over the crowd of us, making it clear that my status as a female wouldn't spare me the wrath of the soldiers just as Jamie had indicated before. Not like I wanted special treatment anyway.

"We'll be caught like rats in a trap. Can we not run for it?" Jamie suggested to Alexander.

"And leave the Laird to their mercy? There is but one chance. It is but a very slim one. I will try and draw them away from this cottage." Alexander sounded firm and resigned and raced from the room, ignoring my attempt to grab him and force him to stay and the Doctor's call to wait.

"Creag an tuire!" We heard him yell through the cottage window and then the abrupt staccato of bullets flying and the sound of them ripping through his flesh. It was a terrible ripping sound that made my blood turn cold and my heart beat in my head. There was a rush of footsteps and the door burst open and six men entered with their weapons drawn and I froze instantly where I was.

"Surrender in the King's name!" One of them said. Ben was oblivious to the obvious danger they posed and instead was actually grateful to see them.

"Blimey, it's good to hear a London voice again." He said with a smile in his voice and the officer who had shouted stared at him with disgust.

"Silence, you rebel dog." He spat at him and Ben's temper flared yet again.

"Rebel? What are you talking about? I'm no rebel! Me and the Doctor and Jessica here, have just arrived." He protested and indicated the two of us as well.

"Deserter, then. You'll hang just the same." The officer insisted. I tried to calm the fluttering in my chest but I couldn't.

"I'm glad you've come, Sergeant. I was waiting for an escort." The Doctor piped up, his voice suddenly taking on a German accent as he did what he always did in situations like these: he bluffed.

"Who the devil do—" The sergeant started but the Doctor cut him off imperiously.

"Civil tongue, Sergeant! You are in charge of these men?"

"No, I am." Another man stepped forward to address the Doctor and he had an air of absolute snobbery.

"A gentleman at last. Doctor von Wer, at your service." He pronounced in a very convincing German accent and despite the situation I tried not to snort at the reference. "Wer" is German for "who" so he literally had just introduced himself as "Doctor (of) Who".

"Doctor who?" The Sergeant demanded.

"That's what I said." He mumbled in my direction and I gave him a small smile. I supposed he was doing this partially to keep up appearances and partially to cheer me up with his theatrics.

"One of those confounded froggies that came over with the Pretender." The man in charge of the soldiers sniffed. What I didn't know was what "froggies" meant. It didn't sound like he held them with regard at any rate.

"We ain't French. Are we?" Ben countered and I got my answer on what his term had meant.

"German, from Hanover. Where your good King George comes from. And I speak English a good deal better than he does." The Doctor corrected and slyly insulted the king at the same time. I was impressed at his gumption to say the least.

"Hear that, sir. Treason! Shall we hang them now?" The Sergeant eagerly asked and my heart rate skyrocketed once again.

"Wait a moment. Who is that?" The head officer indicated the injured Laird.

"Colin McLaren, the Laird, and I'm his piper." Jamie said proudly and boldly and I felt a spike of worry for him. That wasn't going to win him any points with these men whatsoever. My mind told me that things would work out, but then I remembered the experience with the Master and the paradox machine and Omega and my taking the place of Rose, and everything else that had happened. My being there had altered things at least a little but I'd seen and read enough science fiction to know about the butterfly effect and I was terrified that my presence was in a way the catalyst in lieu of a butterfly. There was no denying that my presence changed things and not always for the better. What if this was one of those cases?

"Ah, they're a poor lot, sir. We'll get no pickings here. Let's hang them and have done." The sergeant whined at his commanding officer.

"Well, a right shower you are! What have we done? Nothing! And what have you got against these two? They lost a battle, right? Well, doesn't that make them prisoners of war? And what about Jessie, you going to hang a woman too?" Ben asked angrily. I was getting a bit annoyed at the emphasis on my gender. I wasn't one to normally get bothered by things like that (I had always enjoyed it when someone opened the door for me or called me ma'am) and I understood that there were some distinct differences in each of the sexes, but this was getting to be annoying. I was a woman, yes. But they didn't need to keep treating me like I was glass because of that. Ben never treated Polly this way besides calling her "Duchess". Was there something about me that screamed "fragile"?

"Rebels are not treated as prisoners of war. Right, Sergeant, prepare to hang them." The commanding officer ignored Ben's outrage and apparently his plea for me.

"Sir. Take him out." He saluted then indicated Jamie who rose slowly as the men pointed their weapons his way.

"Didn't I tell you I was—" The Doctor tried to protest but was stopped.

"And you." The sergeant indicated the Doctor who tiredly rose to his feet as well.

"But we haven't done anything!" Ben repeated.

"And you." Was the only response he was given.

"The girl as well sir?" The sergeant asked after a moment of hesitation.

"Perhaps we can find a better use for the rebellious wench, though I doubt it. For now, take her with her friends." The commanding officer waved me away and I stood to join the others while the Laird, Colin, remained on the floor. The sergeant ordered him to get up but Jamie protested.

"But he can't walk!"

"Drag him!" Was the response he got and Jamie went over to his Laird and hoisted him up. I joined him and gently took some of the Laird's weight. With a nod of gratitude we guided him out of the house under the watchful eyes of the English soldiers as Ben and the Doctor marched in front of us, sparing glances back to see how we were doing.

* * *

We walked along for a few moments before some rocks flew in our direction. The march halted and the soldiers looked around, trying to find who was launching the projectiles.

"What was that?" The commanding officer, whose name was Ffinch we had learned by now, asked.

Another round of stones pelted the soldiers and Jamie used his body to shield Colin's as a few bounced our way but never quite hit us. They wouldn't have been deadly to either him or myself, but who knew with the state Colin was in what they would do to him. Besides, they would at the very least hurt a great deal.

"Look, sir, over there, on that hill." The sergeant pointed out to Ffinch who took a look.

"Looks like a wench. Stab me, there's another one." He determined after observing for a moment.

"Yeah, puts me in mind of what Sergeant King of the Dragoons said, sir." Ffinch was curious as to what he meant by this.

"Well, the Dragoons have got orders to stop every woman. Not that they need them, mind." I grimaced a bit at the statement and all the underlying subtext it had.

"Get to the point, Sergeant." He ordered tiredly.

"Well, they've heard that the Prince is trying to escape disguised as a woman. Shall I go after them, sir?" Ffinch's man looked particularly excited about the prospect of hunting down the royal, but Ffinch was just as eager to find what was essentially for him a giant payday. Nothing motivates a bored and despondent worker like a hefty bounty and it got Ffinch's sorry self into gear very fast.

"No, I'll go. You two men, come with me." He indicated a couple of soldiers and took off before his sergeant could protest.

"Yeah, but I—"But Ffinch was already gone. They were two men down and I wondered, would now be a good time to put an escape into effect? I looked over to the Doctor with a questioning gaze in my eyes, and he gave a small shake of his head. Already he was missing Polly and we were surrounded by heavily armed and annoyed men. He doubted I would make it more than a few steps and so did I. So we pressed on for a while. The trek got exhausting as I helped to carry along what was essentially dead weight in the form of Colin, and Jamie noticed my sluggish movements. He kicked Ben in the back of the leg to get his attention. Whirling around angrily Jamie indicated me with a tilt of his head and Ben moved in to take over.

"I've got him." I said stubbornly and Ben shook his head.

"Time you took a break Jessie. It's been a long day." With that he took over my post and motioned me to move over to the Doctor. The soldiers briefly looked to see what was going on but quickly lost interest in the spectacle as it was clear none of us were making any hostile movements. I didn't say anything as I came up to the Doctor but walked very close to him, hoping to feel a bit more secure in his vicinity. He gently grasped my hand and gave it a quick squeeze before letting go and we continued our journey onwards towards who knew what. In spite of everything, the soldiers, the guns, the imminent threat of death hanging over our heads, I felt more at home than I ever had since I came to this parallel universe.

Idris was right. The second Doctor was home to me. And boy did it feel good to be home.

* * *

Speaking of imminent death, apparently hanging is what the soldiers had in mind our little band of rogues (emphasis on the little). Each of the men were instructed to the platform of a gallows while I was herded nearby. I went to try and intervene when one of the men shoved a gun into the small of my back. The Doctor pleaded with me through a desperate look to not antagonize the men who could easily blast me away and, feeling useless, I stood by as nooses were strung around each of their necks. If I wasn't to be hanged, what did they have in store for me? In the pit of my stomach I knew that I really didn't want to know.

"What a great devotion to duty your Lieutenant shows, Sergeant." The Doctor interjected as they proceeded to secure the nooses.

"Devotion to duty. Devotion to thirty thousand pound reward, that's all." The Sergeant scoffed at the Doctor's analysis of the situation.  
"You think he will catch them?" Inquired the Doctor, trying to distract. Who were they anyways is what I was wondering? From the look of annoyance on Ben's face by the question, I was assuming they were Polly and Kirsty. Good for them. They were being much more helpful than I was.

"That young whelp? Couldn't catch his own grandmother." That seemed awfully disrespectful for a subordinate officer. My uncle had served in the military and I knew that he was treading a fine line by that comment.

"Disrespect to your superior officer, Sergeant? I could report you." The Doctor informed him and the soldier laughed as though he had said an especially humorous joke.

"You could, but you won't."

"Ah, but at a price, Sergeant." The Doctor never gave up on his whole "German doctor" shtick. I'm not sure what he thought he was accomplishing but he kept trying anyways.

"You won't, cause you won't be here when he gets back. All right you scum, proceed with the hanging."

"Don't you dare!" I demanded and all eyes turned on me. The barrel was pressed harder into my back but I stood my ground. The sergeant sauntered over to me and looked me over. He didn't seem impressed.

"And what's to stop me young lady? You?" He asked and tilted my chin up so I had to look him in the eye.

"If you do…I'll tell Officer Ffinch all you said about him while he was away." I was grasping at straws, but with it seeming obvious that they weren't to kill me it actually gave me better bargaining power than the Doctor.

"Oh? And how to you purpose to do that if you can't even speak?" The sergeant asked and then proceeded to give me a vicious slap across the face. Ben, the Doctor, and Jamie all expressed their outrage. I knew Ben himself to be a naval officer and he knew that this was not the way a true soldier would conduct himself. He shouted at him that he was unworthy of his post and dishonorable and a whole slew of other things I couldn't even understand. The Doctor seemed to be trying to regain the man's attention as he kept talking about the mistreatment of a foreign visitor's aid, and Jamie glared murder at the man, calling him a coward that went after unarmed women. I shook my head slightly to clear my thoughts and just glared at him, trying my best to stand my ground. He smirked and turned his back. Launching myself at his frame, the soldier guarding me wrenched my arms behind me and planted himself firmly in the ground to keep us both in place. I wasn't going anywhere.

"You can't hang them until the senior officer is back!" I tried again and the sergeant didn't even look my way.

"Why do you think he went away? Got a delicate stomach, he has. Always leaves the dirty stuff to me. Right! Get them up!" They were forced to stand on a bench which when taken away would snap their necks. I felt bile start to rise in my throat at the thought. The Doctor couldn't die here, it was much too soon! And Ben, whatever happened to Ben? I didn't know how his story ended. Was it bloody and painful? Then there was Jamie, his story hadn't even gotten to really begin, how could he die now? And of course there was still poor Kirsty to think about if her father died. The poor man was still mortally wounded and barely able to stand long enough to keep himself from strangling yet.

"Take the strain! Stand by!" The sergeant ordered and a drum beat began. I squirmed but my arms were pulled on painfully and I couldn't break free. I was useless again.

"Halt!" An imperious voice called out just before the bench was taken away from supporting their weight. The demeanor of the man who had given the command matched the voice. In marched a regally dressed older gentlemen with his attendant dogmatically at his heels. What they were doing here, I didn't know but I was plenty glad they had showed up in time to stop this.

"What do you want?" The disgruntled sergeant asked.

"Just a moment!" The man demanded again.  
"Who the devil are you?" Was the angry reply.

"Perkins!" The attendant scuttled forward with a very official looking document.

"Solicitor Grey, Lincolns Inn Fields. His Majesty's Commissioner for the disposal of rebel prisoners." Er, that sounded less friendly now.

"There's a fine sturdy young man. Take the nooses off them. Set that young man down." Who was he referring to, Ben or Jamie? Grey then turned my way. "And a young lady as well. I have failed to make acquaintance with many of them. It would be a shame to deny me the company of this one." That sounded gentile but the look in his eyes spoke better. He was eying both Ben and Jamie and I like things at an auction, judging what we might be worth.

"Set him down." Perkins, the attendant echoed. "And send the young woman our way." The men moved to obey but the sergeant stopped them.

"I don't care who you are. You've got no charge over my men."

"I admit your prior claim, Sergeant, but I think you are a reasonable man." Soon there was a transaction of money from the Solicitor to the Sergeant and he relented. I supposed he was happy to be rid of us.

"Alright, you heard what the Commissioner said. Nooses off. Get him down." Ben was released. Apparently he had meant Ben. "Bring the girl here." He motioned the man holding my arms forward and I was dragged and deposited by Ben who glared at the other soldiers before moving to stand by my side.

"Thanks sir." He addressed Grey who was looking rather pleased with himself.

"A trifle, I assure you. Strong ruffians like you and this other young rebel here, are needed in his Majesty's service. Then there is a matter of common courtesy when addressing the fairer sex. They too have their use." That was downright degrading. What a pompous peacock! Jamie was released as well and he stood on the platform, refusing to relinquish his post of guarding his Laird.

"Ah, yes." The Doctor piped up and Grey noticed him and Colin.

"You can dispatch this one, Sergeant, and this strange looking scoundrel." Meaning the Doctor of course. Ben tensed beside me and so did I. There was no way I was escaping without the Doctor, nor did I want to anyway. He went with us, or I wasn't going. Jamie seemed to feel the same as he straightened his posture and stood resolutely by Colin. He wasn't budging. Then a bit of miscellaneous history hit me. European history class was finally paying off for me. Not to discredit the importance of any history, but I had yet had much use for it outside of school. Obviously it now was to my advantage I had actually learned something.

"Aliens Act, 1730." I blurted and everyone turned to look at me.  
"What?" Grey questioned of me.

"You do know the law, don't you?" I kept plowing forward, determined to for once save the Doctor.

"How dare you speak to Mister Grey like that." Perkins was affronted but Grey was intrigued.

"I am a lawyer, yes."

"Then you know you can't kill him. Not without informing his government first. And besides, do you really want to execute a doctor?" The Doctor looked impressed at my remembering this little factoid. I guess adrenaline was good for jogging the memory.

"Who is this extraordinary rogue, and who are you my dear? You speak the language with a harsher dialect."

"He says he's a frog doctor, sir." The Sergeant piped up. "And that she's his assistant or something of that nature."

"German. And we know more about the English law than you do, it seems. My associate is from the colonies, the daughter of my sister. She has been helping me as a form of income and a chance to see the world. You the romanticism of the youth, always yearning for adventure." The Doctor piped in and steered the conversation in his direction.

"I'm the only law what matters to you right now, matey. And if this gentleman don't want you, you hang." Informed the sergeant with a gleam of murder in his eyes. Nice guy this sergeant. Bet he was great at parties.

"No, wait. You both show a touching faith in his Majesty's justice, sir. A doctor, eh? We need doctors where you're going. Send him along with the other prisoners to Inverness." Grey turned to me. "The young lady will go as well. A Doctor needs his aid after all and it would be rude of me to deny the girl the company of her guardian."

"The Laird goes too or you can hang me with him. I'll not go with ye." Jamie declared stubbornly and it looked like we may succeed in prolonging everyone's life for just a bit longer.

"No, go. Jamie, go." Colin ordered but Jamie was resolute. He wasn't budging without him.

"We'll see about that." The sergeant interjected.

"Sergeant! What do you think, Doctor? Can this man be healed of his wound?" Grey questioned thoughtfully.

"With proper care, yes." The Doctor informed him.

"Whether he'll get that where he is going is very doubtful. But I'll leave him in your care. Take him away, Sergeant." The Solicitor ordered and Jamie and Colin were led down from the platform to solid ground, along with the Doctor who joined Ben by my other side. I felt relief ebb through my body, the tension in my shoulders relaxed a bit.  
"Sir! 'Shun! You men escort these gentlemen and these prisoners to Inverness. I'll wait here for the Lieutenant." The sergeant told his men.

"What will happen to us?" The Doctor asked. Grey looked smug as he answered the question with a gleam of greed sparkling in his irises.

"First you go to Inverness, and then perhaps a sea voyage? The girl wanted to see the world you said? I can guarantee she'll get her adventurous nature satiated." He nodded and we were led off, the words ominously echoing in my brain. What they meant, I could only guess. One thing I could be sure of though: this wasn't going to end well for us if we didn't get away from these guys and soon.

**A/N: Hi! Here's an update and a friendly note. I understand that I include elements of my faith, and, seeing as how there are possibly readers from all over the world not everyone shares my views. I respect your difference of beliefs, whether it be you ascribe to a different religion or none at all. I thank the reviewer who brought this up and expressed their difference of opinion very respectfully and intelligently. That is how healthy discourse goes. Feel free to ask me any questions about why I believe what I believe. I am plenty open to reasonable discussion like that in the review. All I ask is that if you wish to continue the discussion is that you do it in a way that we can actually continue to communicate. Anonymous reviews make it a bit difficult to do that. Either way, no sweat. If you have no interest, please just keep continuing to enjoy the story. **

**To me, intelligent design seems more credible than other theories of the beginning of the universe due to the irreducible complexity of living thing in it. That's just one of them many reasons I believe what I do.  
This wasn't meant to be a church sermon, just a response of why I felt it good to include some of those elements in my writing; the character is a part of me and my beliefs are important to me. Feel free to take this as you will and thanks for giving this story a chance. Each and every one of you are wonderful for spending the time to read my work. **

**Happy reading, writing, and obsessing, **

**Heroicagal**


	14. The Not So Lovely Trask and Annabelle

Being marched to the prison wasn't necessarily a pleasant ordeal. I stuck close to the Doctor, trying to ignore the leering faces of the soldiers as we walked at a brisk pace that almost constituted jogging. Poor Colin couldn't keep up. But Jamie was steadfast in helping his laird along and Ben wasn't about to be shown up by Jamie so he was kept a steady grip on the man as well. When I tried to help both of them shooed me away and back to the Doctor, saying that they were fine and didn't need my help.

Eventually we reached the prison in Inverness and were led to a circular, water-logged, moss-lined cell. So kind of these soldiers to make us comfortable. The Doctor was prodded in with the end of a bayonet and I was quick to scramble in after him, wanting to be as close to the way out of this situation as possible. I was sure he was already formulating a plan. Jamie and Ben entered in afterwards with the exhausted Colin slumped between them.

"Look after him, mate. He'll be all right. Okay, mate, okay. Take it easy, take it easy. Sit down." Ben instructed Jamie as they moved him into a seated position. Not like he had to instruct Jamie, I doubt the piper would've been anything less than super careful. After they were situated Ben took a look around and frowned. "A right rat hole this is, isn't it?"

"Oh, King George has worse than this, never fear."

"I'm sensing a running theme here with King George's and rebellions." I whispered to the Doctor, trying to lift my spirits with a little history humor. I was a nerd and proud of it.

"Yes, though in your case it was different my dear wasn't it? This is King George II, yours was King George III."

"I know. Like a said: a running theme." He smiled a bit at my joke, good humor glinting in his eyes despite our situation.

"Yeah, well, I'm glad Polly's out of it. Why did we ever get mixed up in this, Doctor?" Ben addressed his friend, missing our mutual appreciation of the other's grasp on history.

"I'm glad we did. I'm just beginning to enjoy myself. Down with King George!" The Doctor shouted loudly in hopes of rousing the others in the surrounding cells. I laughed at his antics and Jamie sent us both an appreciative look as the many prisoners cheered in response.

"Silence, you Jacobite pigs. You don't want to feel this bayonet." The sentry warned. Jamie scowled slightly.

"Oh, enjoy yourselves. So you are for the Prince after all?" He seemed hopeful of our response, no doubt in need of some allies right now since his comrade had just been shot and his laird wasn't doing well at all.

"No, not really. I just like hearing the echo, that's all. Let's have a look at his wound, shall we?" The Doctor turned back to Colin and waved me over. Apparently he wasn't just spinning a tale earlier when he said I was his assistant, he really wanted me to help him treat the downed Scotsman. I wracked my brain for the basic first aid knowledge I had and made my way over.

"Would you not be letting him now?" Jamie asked seriously and the blood from my own face drained away at the thought. I was a bit squeamish and while I thought I could stomach helping the Doctor treat Colin, intentionally slitting into his arm to drain his blood was something I wanted to do. The Doctor had me gently support some of Colin's weight as he moved him to a sitting position to look assess the damage.

"With care, that'll heal." He indicated a large gouge in Colin's side. I blanched a bit but nodded, believing his analysis.

"Ach, here's you saying you're a doctor, ye've not even bled him yet." Jamie scolded the Doctor.

"What's he on about?" Ben wondered.

"Blood-letting Ben. A common practice hereabouts." I answered for the Doctor.

"Yeah, but that's stupid." Ben responded in shock. I wanted to scold him. After all, it wasn't as though the human race knew any better at this point in time. Jamie just wanted to be sure his friend was properly looked after in the only way he knew how.

"It's the only way of curin' the sick." Jamie glared at Ben, echoing my internal monologue in his body language.

"Killing him, more like. He's lost enough blood already." Ben chided and I gave the Doctor a look, nudging him to get on with some excuse that Jamie would believe as to why we couldn't bleed Colin. For all the rudeness, Ben was right. It would kill the laird if he was bled.

"Oh, Isis and Osiris, is it met? Aquarius, Aries, Taurus." Two picked up on my nudge and decided to do something. Jamie, for his part, brightened and looked relieved that the Doctor was doing something he understood.

"Oh, aye." He nodded in satisfaction.

"Now what's 'e mumbling about?" Ben asked me. Jamie cut his curiosity off. I was glad because to be honest, I didn't know how to answer Ben.

"Whist, man."

"Gemini and Taurus. When was the Laird born?" The Doctor went on.

"In the fifth month." Jamie answered.

"That's what I thought. Now, blood -letting must wait until Taurus is in the ascendant. So it is willed." I didn't understand what had happened but if Jamie would accept it, it was fine by me. I didn't want to see anybody as a blood fountain, thank you very much. Besides, odds were much more in the laird's favor this way.

"You don't believe all that codswallop, do you?" Ben brusquely demanded while rolling his eyes. I whacked him on the arm and got a glare in response.

"Jamie does." I hissed. "He doesn't know what germs are and the Doctor can't explain it without messing with the integrity of the timeline. Plus, there's not enough time to give him an eighteenth century man a crash course on modern science, so this puts his mind at ease."

"What was that word?" Jamie questioned as he heard just a tiny bit of what I had whispered to Ben.

"It's a secret word." The Doctor informed Jamie as he nodded in appreciation to me.

"Yeah, germs. They're all around us." Ben tried in spite of me and my warnings. I think it was revenge for the whack I gave him.

"Used by German doctors." Two recovered while shooting his misbehaving companion a look.

"Oh, Ger-man. Germs." Jamie was quite pleased with himself as he thought he understood.

"Yes. Have you got a handkerchief, Ben?" The Doctor gestured with an open hand to his companion, expecting to be gifted said item.

"Yeah, here you are." He handed the Doctor his handkerchief. Jamie scoffed at the material.

"Ach, that wee lassie's kerchief? Here, Doctor, use mine." Jamie offered the use of his handkerchief. Feeling mischievous and a bit put off by that "wee lassie's" comment, I bent down and ripped off a length of my skirt and handed it to the Doctor. It was a long skirt, and the material was much cleaner and sturdier than either of the men's kerchiefs.

"I think this would work better Doctor." I handed him the cloth bit and he looked faintly amused. But, seeing as how the skirt was long enough that my honor was still intact he accepted my offering as Jamie and Ben gaped at my nonchalant manner. I gave them both a look as I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow and Ben looked away blushing while Jamie held my gaze. "I thought that your 'wee laddie's' kerchief might not be strong enough to get the job done. Besides, a lady's usually cleaner than a man and we wouldn't want him getting infected." Jamie raised an eyebrow back in amusement and smirked as he looked me over once more, this time taking in more detail.

"Where's the lass from again?" He stage whispered to Ben.

"America. And believe me, she's one of the more pleasant ones. That little display is nothing compared to the stories I've heard." I sent Ben a death glare at the insult. Jamie gave me another glance.

"Shame. She would've made a good Scot." I smiled in response. I knew that was a rather large compliment he just gave me.

As the Doctor finished binding Colin's wound he noticed something strange.

"Hello, what's this?" He asked and brought out an embroidered silk cloth that Colin had hidden on his person. It had a beautiful and intricate design that made it look quite regal.

"Prince Charlie's personal standard." Jamie whispered with urgency, trying to get the Doctor to stop his rather loud investigation lest one of the guards hear.

"What's he doing with it?" Ben questioned.

"Protecting it. Now put it back, will ye. If a sentry saw it—"Jamie started to voice his pretty legitimate concerns. I could see why it was making him edgy. Colin couldn't stand up to prolonged interrogation and I didn't want to see either Ben or Jamie suffer through any harsh questioning either.

"No, wait." The Doctor wrapped it around his body under his coat.

"What are you doing?" Jamie demanded, a bit outraged at the Doctor all but helping himself to the royal's property.

"What chance do you think he has of evading the gallows with this on him?" Reasoned Two. Jamie considered his reasoning.

"Well—"He tried to argue.

"Besides, it's really rather nice and warm. Let's have a tune to cheer us all up." The Doctor pulled out his recorder and I shook my head in wonder at his actions but smiled all the same. He started to play a tune I didn't recognize.

"You have a plan right?" I asked as he continued to play the notes. He just winked at me. I supposed I should've expected nothing less, he wasn't always forthcoming with his plans. And if he let me in on them, he knew I'd try to take part and he was probably trying to minimize the risk for anyone that wasn't himself.

"Yeah, I didn't think we'd heard the last of that." Ben moaned as the Doctor played.

"Silence!" The sentry shouted down at us.

"Whist, man!" Jamie hissed at the Doctor as he had Ben before to try and silence him.

"Well, you're a loyal Jacobite, aren't you? This is your tune. Come on, everybody, join in." The Doctor encouraged and the prisoners actually joined in as Jamie looked on in bemusement and wonder at the little man who could command such attention and get what he wanted so easily.

"Silence, I say! I warned you rebels once! Now we'll see what a touch of the bayonet will do. Now then!" The sentry called down and started to approach our cell. I assumed this was part of the Doctor's plan, so I tried not to be too panicked as he made his way down.

"The guard is coming down now." Ben informed us all. Said guard was there in a moment.

"You!" He barked and pointed at the Doctor. The Doctor did a one-eighty in his attitude and pulled out the accent again.

"Thank heavens. Did you hear that tune?" He pulled off his German impersonation again. Actually, it was pretty convincing. It reminded me of when Ten sounded Scottish when he encountered Queen Victoria. Of course, David Tennant was Scottish so that wasn't really too much of a stretch…

"Heard a rebel dirge." The guard confirmed with suspicion.

"They were singing it to drive me out of my mind, as I'm a loyal subject to King George the Second!"

"Please tell me this is part of the plan." I groaned under my breath, hoping that Jamie wouldn't try to tear the Doctor or Ben limb from limb due to his flip-flopping in supposed loyalties constantly.

"Now what's that got to do with me?" The guard asked rather sensibly.

"They know of a plot to murder your general, the Duke of Cumberland." The Doctor stated urgently.

"What?!" Both Jamie and I asked at the same time. Jamie more out of confusion and outrage at the lie, myself upset at the recklessness of what he was trying to attempt. Honestly, he was going to get himself killed and at this rate he and Jamie were never going to be friends.

"Oh, come off it, Doctor." Ben told him.

"I knew he wasne one of us." Jamie decided and I sighed in exasperation.

"Take me to Solicitor Grey. Perhaps we're in time to prevent it." The Doctor pressed on.

"Why didn't you speak about this before?" The sentry wasn't quite buying it yet.

"Well, it's only just discovered. That rogue is party to it!" He pointed in the general direction of many prisoners, including Jamie. It was clever, making sure he didn't have to single anyone out and doom any individual to pull of his rouse. The guard seemed to think it was worth a chance in investigating the matter so he and a few other guards escorted the Doctor away as a new man took post as sentry. The prisoners, including Jamie, yelled angrily after the retreating Doctor and English soldiers.

"Well done, mate." Ben realized what the Doctor had done as soon as he was taken out of the cell.

"What do you mean? Why don't you go and join your friend?" Jamie was bitter as he confronted Ben.

"Jamie." I gently touched his arm to get his attention. He jolted upright in surprise at the contact as I was standing behind him. "I can call you Jamie right? Or would you prefer James?"

"Ye can address me as Jamie." He decided after a moment. I smiled, pleased to be able to call him by the nickname that the Doctor said so often and with such fondness.

"Alright, Jamie. I don't know if we were properly introduced in all the chaos but I'm Jessica Smith and I _know_ the Doctor. Now look, I know it looks bad right now but the Doctor has a plan. That was an act to get out of the cell and eventually come back and rescue us. He doesn't abandon his friends. He'll come for us. But he had to get out of this cell before he could do anything." Jamie seemed hesitant to accept my words. "Trust me. We'll get out of here, but we'll need his help." His doubt seemed to start to fade away and he nodded, willing to take me at my word.

"Aye, nevertheless, I'm still worried." Jamie informed me and I nodded. That was reasonable.

"Now don't you worry about him, mate, worry about us. See that line? Well, that's where the water level comes up to. And tonight is not my bath night." Ben interjected as he noticed our predicament with increasing alarm and I winced. So much for any chance I had of getting any rest in between the action. Not that I'd be able to anyway, I was worried about the Doctor too no matter what I said. He'd come for us, yes. But when? And what if he got hurt doing so?

* * *

We spent the next few hours waiting in mostly silence. I'd sit there and count the bricks on the wall and when I was bored of that I'd count the pieced of sopping straw that lined the floor. Ben would chat with me a bit about how things were going with Polly and Jamie would pretend not to eaves drop on the strangers who had gotten pulled into the conflict he'd pledged his life to. Eventually I got around to checking Colin again. The man wasn't necessarily better, but he wasn't getting worse. Stabilization was a good thing.

When it came time to clean the redress the wound after the blood had clotted I asked Jamie for his kerchief. He was gentlemanly enough to let my earlier comment slide and prevent me from further damaging my skirt. I didn't want to run around in the brisk Scottish air in a mini-skirt after all.

I started dozing off with my head leaning against the wall and the boys fighting over who would be the next to take watch when the guards came again. This time he had another man accompanying him. He was someone we hadn't seen before.

"Come on, all four of you." The sentry unlocked the door and demanded we get out of the cell. I stood up and moved over to help Jamie with Colin before Ben got the chance. He was yanked out by the sentry before he could protest my helping Jamie bear Colin's weight. As we stepped out I kept my head down, hoping to keep the strange man from noticing me. It didn't work as I suddenly felt someone grab my arm and jerk me away from my friends to stand in front of him.

"Well, what've we got here?" The man sneered. His breath smelt of tobacco and whisky. "Haven't seen one of your lot come through missy. Thought we were only getting strapping lads. You'll make things much more enjoyable." I shuddered as he smirked at me.

"You'd do well to leave her alone." Jamie suddenly interrupted and the man stooped his leering and turned to the young Scotsman.

"You have something to say boy?"

"Leave her be. What type of man goes after a woman when she can't fight back? Ye're a coward." The man suddenly shoved me away from him and then stalked towards Jamie. I moved to intercede but Ben grabbed me. He drew a dagger and started to advance before the sentry interrupted.

"Solicitor Grey said he wanted them in good condition. They're not worth anything to us damaged. Wait a bit and then have your way with the boy and the girl, but not until Solicitor Grey says so." The man considered this and stowed his dagger.

"Very well, we'll do it your way for now." He turned to look at Jamie and me and smiled predatorily. "But I'll be sure to have a talk with the Solicitor." We were then ushered to join other prisoners who were being taken from their cells and ushered into the hallway.

"Now, look lively!" We were pushed none to gently down a corridor where an elderly woman was struggling with a pot and Ben nearly bowled her over.

"Sorry." He apologized as she righted herself. I got a glimpse of her face and I had to stop my jaw from dropping. That was the Doctor! The Doctor in a dress none the less! Was this a part of his plan?

"Watch your feet, you swab. Out of the way, you. Right, open up." The sentry instructed Ben, then the Doctor, then the unpleasant new comer who obliged. We were then shooed up and into a large, bare, wooden room. As we had walked past I locked eyes with the Doctor who warned me with a glance not to give him away.

"Where's your friend?" Jamie whispered to Ben as we waited, penned up once again.

"Polly? I don't know. Safe, I hope." It was sweet how concerned Ben was for Polly.

"And Kirsty, too. They're well out of it. But I mean the Doctor." Jamie said.

"I dunno. He'll be here though, don't worry." Ben responded confidently.

"Yeah, in a wee moment it'll just be too late." Jamie shifted under the tired Colin's weight. Ben replaced where I had been standing before the sentry's new pal had yanked me away and helped him hold up Colin.

"Have a little faith Jamie. I promise, he's working on getting us out right now." I gently squeezed Jamie's shoulder in reassurance, feeling nearly as comfortable around him as I did Two. For some reason, even back home, the two of them had stood out the most to me among all the many Doctors and Companions. Around them I felt the most at ease and comfortable and it showed in my demeanor I supposed.

"Silence, you three! Unless ye wants a taste of this! Right, you're all going down there. Right, Pat lad, down he goes." The new enemy threatened us with his dagger which I knew could possibly be bluster based on what we had heard about him needing permission from Solicitor Grey. Wooden steps beneath us led through a trap door to a small landing stage where a rowing boat stood in weight. I gulped slightly at the sight and I heard Jamie shift uneasily behind me. Ben helped him move Colin down the stairs as the soldiers beckoned us forward.

"Right, Mister Trask, that's the lot." The soldier said and walked away, leaving a few escorts with us intermixed with the now named Trent's own men.

"Well, where are you taking us?" Ben demanded to know what all of us were wondering.

"You'll find out soon enough." Trask told him rather ominously.

"You've not a mind to drown us, have you?" Jamie questioned and I paled at the thought.

"Ha! Wouldn't pollute the firth with ye. Get in the boat." Trask pointed to the row boat, drawing a pistol he had had holstered for emphasis. Other prisoners started to file onto the boat.

"Quick, we can make a break for it and swim." Ben suggested and I prepared to dive into the water, seeing it as a much more pleasant alternative than going anywhere with Trask.

"I can't swim." Jamie informed him with a look of dread. So much for that idea. I wasn't about to abandon him to Trask's tender mercies. Especially when he'd gotten into trouble on my account. I sent Ben a look suggesting as much and he moaned in frustration.

"Now you tell me." He said.

"In the boat!" We four were the last standing and Trask pointed the pistol our way, aiming lazily in between the three of us standing and the one of us hunched over in pain. If he shot it would hit Colin absolutely and possibly Ben or Jamie as well. No way was I going to risk that. I got into the boat with my head held high, glaring at the man who smiled mockingly in my direction as I took a seat, shivering against the cold even though I was wearing a sweater. Jamie was quick to take the spot beside me and Ben, seeing no alternative, followed suit and sat on the opposite side of Colin where Jamie wasn't currently seated. The men moved around and manacled us all together so none of us could escape. Trask took special pleasure in tightening mine and Jamie's manacles painfully tight. I glared at him and he just smirked.

"Right. Off." Trask ordered and we rowed away into the night. The fog hung heavily in the air and there were no sounds other than the oars cutting through the choppy waters and the grunts of the men who were rowing. A chill ran up my spine and I found myself instinctually moving closer to my companions wishing the Doctor were there to tell me what I could do to get out of this mess.

* * *

Eventually we came to a ship and were loaded onto the wooden deck where we formed a ragged line and stood warily at attention as the men guarding us ordered. There were two sailors waiting on deck with a man bound tightly. I didn't like where this was going.

"Belay there, you swabs! In case you're thinking of escaping, there's Jim Hughes for you. He didn't find it a happy ship, so I'll find him another berth where he'll be happy!" Trask informed us loudly and my heart dropped into my stomach as the man was heaved by the sailors over the side of the boat with little remorse in their eyes. I had a sharp intake of breath and my eyes grew wide as I wanted to yell in protest, jump in and save the man, do something! Trask took great delight in my reaction and looked directly at me when he delivered the last point of his inspirational speech. "Once aboard the Annabelle, that's the only way you'll get off her. Straight downwards!" He pointed over the side of the boat and I felt sick as the shout of the drowning man had been muffled by the water he was surely inhaling into his lungs. "Put 'em below!" Trask told his men and we were dragged downstairs. I found myself having to repeat what I'd told Jamie to myself.

The Doctor would come for us. He doesn't abandon his friends.

The Doctor would come for us. He had to.

What could I do to help until then? Stay alive of course. And help keep other people alive. But that looked like it was going to be a more difficult task by them moment.

What was it that the Fifth Doctor was always telling Tegan? "Brave heart, Tegan?"

Well, "Brave heart, Jessica". My friends needed me and I couldn't give up. Because if I did, then I'd be dead for sure.


End file.
